WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN 
CAMPAGNA 


THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 


^^ANDERINGS  IN   THE 
ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

BY 

RODOLFO  LANCIANI 

•  ♦ 

AUTHOR  OF  "  ANCIENT  ROME  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  RECENT  DISCOVER-       /\\Ay^i'^^ 
lES,"    "pagan  and   CHRISTIAN    ROME,"    "  NEW   TALES  OF  ' 

OLD  ROME,"   "the  RUINS  AND    EXCAVATIONS  OF 
ANCIENT  ROME,"    "  THE   GOLDEN  DAYS  OF 
THE   RENAISSANCE  IN  ROME,"   ETC. 

PROFUSELY   ILLUSTRATED 


lonHon 
CONSTABLE  &  CO.  Limited 

BOSTON   AND   NEW    YORK 

HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
1909 


V 


COPYRIGHT,    1909,   BY   RODOLFO   LANCIANI   AND 
HOUGHTON    MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


CONTENTS 

I.    The  Land  of  Saturn         .....  1 

II.    The  Land  of  Horace     .....  74 

HI.    The  Land  of  Hadrian       .....  127 

IV.    The  Land  of  Gregory  the  Great        .            .  188 

V.    The  Land  of  Cicero           .          .          .          .          .  247 

VI.    The    Land    of    Pliny   the  Younger  and    the 

Land  of  Nero   .          .          .          .          .          .  302 


Appendix   .......  .  365 

Index     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       371 


213531 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


FULL-PAGE  PLATES 

The  Roman  Campagna  (Map)  Frontispiece 

The    Alban    Volcanic    Range    seen    from    the    Villa 

quintiliorum     .         .  2 

The  Wilderness  by  which  Rome  is  surrounded  .  .17 
A  Glimpse  of  the  Pine  Forest  of  Castel  Fusano         .     21 

From  a  photograph  by  Miss  Dora  Bulwer. 

The  Sarcophagus  found  in   the  Via  Collatina,  June, 

1908 .27 

Our  Lady  of  the  Fever,  in  the  Crypts  of  St.  Peter's  53 
The  Citharcede  Apollo  found  in  the  Villa  of  Voconius 

POLLIO 57 

A  Wayside  Shrine  (Iconetta)  near  Subiaco  .  .  .63 
The  Castle  of  the  Caetani  near  Metella's  Tomb       .     69 

The  Small  Waterfalls 77 

View  from  the  Terrace  of  Cynthia's  Villa  at  Sant' 

Antonio 89 

The  Coat  of  Arms  of  the  d'Este  on  the  Balustrade  of 

THE  Upper  Terrace      . 109 

One  of  Ligorio's  Fountains  in  the  Hall  of  the  Palace 

COPIED    FROM   the   AnTIQUE 115 

The  best  existing  Portrait  Bust  of  Hadrian        .         .  133 

Showing  the  beard  worn  for  the  first  time  by  a  Roman  Emperor. 

The  So-Called  Marine  Theatre,  with  the  Channel, 

inclosing  the  round  island 137 

One  of  the  Giant  Cypresses  planted  by  Count  Giuseppe 

Fede  in  the  First  Half  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  143 

Ancient   Olive  Trees  in  the   Land   of  Gregory  the 

Great 146 


viii  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Specimen  of  the  Reticulated  Style  of  Masonry  used 

BY  Hadrian  in  the  Structures  of  the  Villa  .     ,     .151 

A  View  of  the  Royal  City  of  Palmyra  .         .         .  155 

The  Statue  of  Antinous  discovered  by  Gavin  Hamilton 

AT  Palestrina  in  THE  Year  1795        .         .         .         .181 

A  Ruined  Aqueduct  in  the  Land  of  Gregory  the  Great  191 

From  a  photograph  by  the  Cav.  U.  Tambroni. 

The  Statue  of  St.  Gregory  by  Nicolo  Cordieri,  a  Pupil 

OF  Michelangelo 197 

General  View  of  Modern  Palestrina  covering  Site  of 

Temple  of  Fortune 228 

The  Temple  of  Fortune.     Detail.     Interior         .         .  233 
A  Section  of  the  Mosaic  Floor  on  a  Larger  Scale    .  244^ 
The  best  known  Likeness  of  Cicero  at  about  Thirty- 
Five  Years  of  Age 255 

The  Miracle  of  the  Column 269 

One  of  Domenichino's  frescoes  at  Grottaferrata. 

The  Shrine  on  the  Flaminian  Road        ....  277 

Marking  the  spot  at  which  the  head  of  St.  Andrew  was  received  by  Pope 
Pius  II  from  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Bessarion. 

A  Fish  Pond  in  the  Tusculan  Villa  of  Bishop  Rufini 

(now  Falconieri)       ........  286 

A  Shady  Walk  in  the  Lucullean  Gardens  (Villa  Conti- 

Torlonia) 289 

The  Stream  of  the  Aqua  Crabra    .....  295 

Which  once  watered  the  lower  meadows  of  Cicero's  estate. 

Remains  of  the  Roman  Cottage  discovered  by  Queen 

Elena  at  Laurentum 319 

Plaster  Cast  of  Queen  Elena's  Discobolus  .        .         .  325 

Completed  by  the  addition  of  the  arm  from  Florence,  the  head  from  the 
Louvre,  and  the  feet  from  the  British  Museum. 

Portrait  Head  of  Nero  at  about  Twenty     .         .         .  343 

Showing  him  a  healthy  and  cheerful  youth. 

One  of  Niobe's  Daughters  struck  to  Death  by  Diana's 

Arrow 355 

The  Mysterious  Greek  Maiden  from  Antium        .        .  359 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  ix 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  THE  TEXT 

Tellen^e,  one  of  the  Ruined  Early  Cities  of  Latium      5 
Picturesque  Remains  of  Aqueducts  in  the  Valle  degli 

Arci 7 

Smaller  Mouth  of  the  Tiber  at  Fiumicino    .         .         .11 
Graves  of  Early  Latins,  probably  of  the  Founders  of 

Rome,  discovered  in  the  Forum        .         .         .         .15 
A  Comparison  between  the  Ancient  and  Modern  Con- 
ditions OF  THE   CaMPAGNA 23 

The    Gate    by   which    the    Pcenine   Pass    Road    left 

AOSTA      . 32 

Pont  St.  Martin,  one  of  the  Roman  Bridges  in  the  Val 

d'  Aosta 36 

A  Hostelry  in  the  Roman  Caaipagna       .         .         .         .41 

A  Glimpse  of  the  Lake  of  Bracciano     .         .         .         .44 

The  Prehistoric  Springs  at  St.  Moritz  .         .         .49 

One  of  the  Watch-Towers  of    the  Caetani   on  the 

Appian  Way 67 

Valley  of  the  Rivus  Albanus  near  Decimo  (from  a  photo- 
graph by  A.  Vochieri) 71 

Portrait  Head  of  Horace  in  a  Medallion  of  the  Third 

Century 80 

The   Peristyle   of   the   Temple   of   Hercules,    where 

Augustus  administered  Justice  .         .         .         .81 

The  Middle  Terrace  of  the  Villa  of  M^cenas  on  the 
Carciano  Road  (from  a  photograph  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Ashby) 83 

Fragment  of  a  Frieze  with  the  Cryptic  Signatures  of 

Saurus  and  Batrachus 85 

The  Bust  of  Anacreon  discovered  by  the  Author  in  the 

Gardens  of  C^sar  in  1884  .         .         .         .         .87 

The  Lower  Terrace  of  the  Villa  of  M^cenas  (from  a 

photograph  by  Miss  Dora  Bulwer)  .         .         .         .92 


X  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Ancient  Vessel  for  Hot  Drinks  found  near  Terracina. 
Side  View  (from  an  unpublished  drawing  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  author)    .......  95 

Ancient  Vessel  for  Hot  Drinks  found  near  Terracina. 

Sectional  View     . 96 

Vestiges  of  one  of  the  Reception  Rooms  in  Cynthia's 

Villa  (from  a  photograph  by  Dr.  Thomas  Ashby)  .  100 

Petronia  Musa 103 

The  High  Street  of  Medieval  Tivoli    ....  106 
LiGORio's  Group  of  Rome  and  its  Founders,  the  Frontis- 
piece TO  HIS  Relief  Plan  of  the  City,  in  the  Villa 

d'Este 113 

Hackert's  View  of  Horace's  Farm 123 

Portrait  Bust  of  the  Empress  Plotina,  the  Wife  of 

Trajan  (showing  the  extraordinary  headdress  worn  by  the 

ladies  of  the  Ulpian  and  iElian  families).         .         .         .  131 

The  Falling  Horse  from  a  Quadriga  discovered  in  the 

Vale  of  Tempe  and  transformed  into  a  Group  of 

QUINTUS    CURTIUS    LEAPING    INTO   THE    ChASM  .  .    140 

A  Corner  of  the  Stadium  in  Hadrian's  Villa       .         .142 

A  Hall  near  the  Greek  and  Latin  Libraries,  excavated 

BY  THE  Author  in  1885 149 

Map  of  the  Hill  of  S.  Stefano  (showing  respective  sites  of 
the  villas  of  Hadrian,  Zenobia,  Maecenas,  Lollia  Paulina, 
and  of  the  Vibii  Varii) 159 

The  Tiburtine  Hills  (a  view  over  which  Queen  Zenobia 
must  have  gazed  for  years  from  the  terrace  of  her  villa- 
prison)  163 

A  View  of  the  Doric  Court,  Hadrian's  Villa       .         .  165 
A  Dedication  to  INIalakibelos,  written  in  Palmyrene 
(discovered  in  the  Trastevere,  and  now  in  the  Capitoline 

Museum) 168 

The  Remains  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  opposite  the 
QuiRiNAL  Palace  (from  an  engraving  by  Giovannoli  made 
in  the  time  of  Paul  V)     . 171 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

The  finding  of  the  Triangular  Altar  in  the  Chapel  of 

Jupiter  Heliopolitanus  on  the  Janiculum       .         .173 

A  MORE  DETAILED  ViEW  OF  THE  TRIANGULAR  AlTAR  BEFORE 

THE  Trap  Door  marked  A,  B,  C,  D  was  lifted  .  175 
What  was  found  in  the  Hiding-Place  .  .  .  .177 
The  Antinous  of  Antonianus,  discovered  at  Torre  del 

Padiglione 185 

The  Church  of  S.  Maria  di  Vulturella  (from  a  sketch 

by  Giovanni  Fontana)      .......  200 

The  Consecration  of  the  Church  of  the  Vulturella  by 
Pope  Sylvester  I,  with  the  Apparition  of  the  Stag 
(from  a  rude  carving  in  wood  preserved  in  the  church)  .  203 
The  Ampiglione  Valley  (with  Ceciliano  in  the  distance,  the 
mountain  of  Santa  Sigola  on  the  right,  the  mediaeval  castle 
of  Ampiglione  on  the  left)        ......  206 

A  Family  Group  of  the  Conti  (from  the  original  picture  now 

in  the  Conti-Torlonia  villa  at  Frascati)    ....  209 

The  Porta  Nevola,  on  the  Road  to  the  Villa  Catena 

(from  a  photograph  by  Miss  Dora  Bulwer)     .         .         .  210 
Avenue  of  Cypresses,  Villa  Catena        ....  214 

The  Approach  to  the  Villa  Catena        ....  216 

The  Ruined  Church  of  the  Fraticelli  on  the  Monte 

Sant'  Angelo  above  Poli 220 

Polygonal  Wali^  built  afier  the  Pelasgic  Occupation 

of  Pr.eneste 225 

Front  of  the  Lower  Terrace  of  the  Sanctuary  (twelve 

hundred  feet  long) 232 

An  Altar  found  within  the  Temple  of  Fortune  .  237 

Plan  of  Oracle 239 

General  Outline  of  the  Mosaic  Floor  in  the  Apse  of 

the  Temple 241 

Map  of  the  District  of  Tusculum  (comprising  Cicero's 
villa  at  the  Colle  delle  Ginestre,  as  well  as  the  most  impor- 
tant ancient  and  modern  ones  in  the  territory  of  Frascati 
and  Grottaferrata) 249 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Rustic  Gate  of  a  Tusculan  Villa  (Falconieri)    .         .  260 

A  View  of  the  Villa  Platform  excavated  1741-46, 
WHERE  the  Tile  inscribed  with  Cicero's  Name  was 
found 263 

The  Name  of  Cicero  stamped  on  the  Bricks  used  in 

the  building  of  his  Villa  at  Tusculum  .         .  264 

The  Gateway  of  the  Groti  aferrata  Abbey  fortified  by 

Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Rovere  about  1485  .  275 

Portrait  of  Cardinal  Bessarion  in  the  Cloister  of  SS. 

Apostoli 282 

A   View   of    the    Villa    Quintiliorum,    now   Mondra- 

GONE 284 

The  Mausoleum  of  Lucullus,  now  called  the  Torrone 

DI  MiCARA       .  .  . 293 

The  Three  Typical  Trees  of  a  Tusculan  Villa  (the  pine, 

the  cypress,  and  the  ilex)  ......  300 

A  View  of  the  Pine  Forest  near  Laurentum        .         .  308 

Inscription  of  Gamekeepers  and  other  Marbles  dis- 
covered BY  Queen  Elena  in  the  Excavations  of  the 
Vicus  August  ANUS  Laurentum 310 

The  Hamlet  of  Torre  Paterna  (once  a  hunting  lodge  of 
Roman  emperors  in  the  forest  of  Laurentum;  later  a 
watch-tower  against  the  Algerian  pirates ;  at  present  used 
for  the  royal  kennels  in  connection  with  the  preserves  of 
Castel  Porziano) 313 

Plan  of  the  Roman  Cottage  discovered  by  Queen 
Elena  on  the  Coast  of  Laurentum.  (The  Discobolus 
was  found  near  its  pedestal  at  the  place  marked  G)        .  317 

The  Discobolus  found  by  Queen  Elena  at  Laurentum 

IN  A  Fragmentary  State 322 

Plaster  Cast  of  Queen  Elena's  Discobolus  (with  the 
addition  of  the  right  arm  now  in  the  Buonarotti  Museum 
at  Florence  and  of  the  Lancellotti  head,  a  cast  of  which 
has  been  found  in  Paris)  ....         .         .  323 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

Fragments  of   Statuary    discovered  in   Pliny's  Baths 

AT  THE  Vicus  Augustanus  (from  photographs  by  Gino 

Ferrari 329 

Half  Wild  Buffaloes  sporting  in  the  Waters  of  the 

River  Numicius  near  Aphrodisium  (La  Fossa)    .       .331 
The  Sulphur  Springs  of  the  Aqu.e   Caldan^  on  the 

VoLsciAN  Coast  Five  Miles  West  of  Antium  .  333 

Part  of  an  Architectural  Relief    .....  335 
The  Dionysiac  Herma  by  Boethus  of  Chalcedon  .  335 

Eros  as  a   Lamp-Stand    (before  and   after  the  process  of 

cleansing ;  recovered  from  the  wreck  of  a  Greek  ship  on  the 

coast  of  Numidia) 337 

The  Great  Earthworks  raised  by  the  Volscians  for  the 

Defence  of  Antium  on  the  Land  Side     ,         .         .  339 
The  Great  Ditch  excavated  by  the  Rutuli  for  the 

Defence  of  Ardea  on  the  Land  Side       .         .         .  341 
Portrait  Head  of  Nero  at  about  Twenty-Six  (showing 

effects  of  excesses  and  dissipation) 347 

One  of  Niobe's  Sons,  from  Nero's  Villa  at  Sublaqueum 

(Museo  Nazionale  alle  Terme)         .         .         .         .         .351 
One  of  the  Daughters  of  Niobe,  from  Nero's  Villa  at 

SuBLAQUEUxM  (Vatican  Museum) 357 

The  Mysterious  Greek  Maiden  from  Antium  (details  of 

head)        .         .         . 363 


WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN 
CAMPAGNA 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    LAND    OF    SATURN 

Salve,  magna  parens  frugum,  Saturnia  tellus, 
Magna  virum.^ 

WHEN  the  shepherds  who  had  just  founded 
Rome  on  the  Hill  of  Pales  used  to  assemble 
on  the  twenty-third  day  of  February  for  the 
celebration  of  the  Terminalia^  at- the  sixth  milestone  of 
the  road  to  Laurentum,  on  the  frontier  of  their  kingdom 
towards  the  sea,  —  a  kingdom  ten  miles  in  diameter, 
—  could  they  have  foreseen  that  the  same  frontier 
would  soon  reach  the  limits  of  the  known  world  ?  that 
the  Terminalia,  instead  of  being  celebrated  any  longer 
on  the  banks  of  the  nameless  stream^  which  divided 
their  fields  from  the  territory  of  Laurentum,  would  be 
observed,  in  times  to  come,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
of  the  Dnieper,  of  the  Rhine,  of  the  Clyde,  and  of  the 
Nile  ?  that  they  would  soon  be  made  to  exchange  their 
pastoral  rod  for  the  sceptre  of  kings,  and  become  lead- 
ers of  men  instead  of  leaders  of  flocks  ? 

Historians  and  ethnographers  have  tried  in  vain  to 

*  "Hail,  land  of  fecundity,  land  of  Saturn,  mother  of  great  men!" 
^  A  festival  in  honor  of  the  god  Terminus,  who  presided  over  bounda- 
ries and  guaranteed  the  rights  of  property.   He  was  represented  by  a  stone 
or  post  stuck  into  the  ground  on  the  boundary  between  two  adjoining  fields. 
^  Now  called  "il  Fosso  di  Acquacetosa." 


2       WANDERINGS   IN   THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

solve  this  problem  of  the  miraculous  growth  of  Rome 
from  so  humble  an  origin.  Of  what  stuff  were  those  shep- 
herds made  ?  Where  did  they  get  their  strength  of  body, 
their  vigor  of  mind,  their  wisdom,  their  prudence,  their 
magnificent  manhood,  which  made  it  possible  for  them 
to  achieve  such  feats  in  times  of  peace  and  in  times  of 
war? 

Livy  seems  to  think  that  the  greatness  of  Rome  was 
due  to  the  quality  and  properties  of  the  land  on  which 
it  was  built,  and  by  which  it  was  surrounded.  "Not 
without  reason,"  he  says,  "did  gods  and  men  choose 
this  site  for  Rome :  healthy  hills,  a  river  equally  adapted 
for  inland  and  maritime  trade,  the  sea  not  too  distant 
...  a  site  in  the  centre  of  the  Peninsula,  made,  as  it 
were,  on  purpose  to  allow  Rome  to  become  the  greatest 
city  in  the  world." 

No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  Roman  Campagna  — 
the  cradle  of  that  mighty  race  —  should  have  become, 
since  the  Renaissance  of  classic  studies,  an  object  of 
investigation  for  all  those  who  feel  the  attraction  of  his- 
torical and  ethnological  problems.  The  first  of  these 
problems  relates  to  the  passage  of  Livy  just  quoted 
concerning  the  wholesomeness  of  the  site  of  Rome,  or 
at  least  of  the  hills  upon  which  it  was  principally  built. 
Were  the  seven  hills  and  the  surrounding  district  (ager 
Romanus)  immune  from  malaria  in  the  first  stages  of 
Roman  history,  or  was  that  sacred  soil  already  tainted 
with  the  germs  to  which  millions  of  men  have  owed  a 
premature  death  in  the  course  of  twenty- seven  centu- 
ries ? 

Specialists  differ  on  this  point.  Brocchi,  the  author 
of  that  delightful  book,  "Stato  fisico  del  suolo  di 
Roma,"^  does  not  doubt  for  an  instant  that  Rome  was. 

1  Printed  by  De  Romanis  in  1820. 


..^^mmm:  JKmm;^mm^m^^ 


Grottaferrata 


Mons  Albanus  Marino 

THE  ALBAN  VOLCANIC  RANGE  SE 


Pascolare  di  Castello  Castelgandolfo 

FROM  THE  VILLA  QUINTILIORUM 


THE   LAND   OF    SATURN  3 

founded  on  land  already  stricken  by  malaria,  while 
W.  H.  Jones,  the  latest  writer  on  the  subject,  ^  thinks 
that  the  scourge  became  endemic  only  about  200  b.  c, 
the  germs  having  been  imported  from  Africa  by  the 
Carthaginians  of  Hannibal.  I  am  myself  inclined  to 
favor  Brocchi's  theory,  because  the  first  records  appear 
in  Roman  literature  about  the  epoch  mentioned  by  Dr. 
Jones,  not  as  records  of  a  new  experience,  but  as  an 
account  of  a  state  of  things  which  had  prevailed  from 
immemorial  times.  No  doubt  the  founders  of  Rome 
were  a  strong  and  wholesome  race ;  no  doubt  their  heavy 
woollen  togas  made  them  proof  against  the  bite  of  the 
anopheles,  and  against  chills  generated  by  the  sudden 
changes  of  temperature  so  common  in  the  Campagna; 
and  no  doubt  mosquitoes  found  less  chance  to  propa- 
gate and  spread  while  volcanic  agencies  were  still  active 
and  powerful  emanations  purified  the  air.  Geologists 
have  shown  that  the  eruptions  of  Monte  Pila,  the  last 
crater  of  the  Alban  range,  must  have  lasted  two  or  three 
centuries  after  the  foundation  of  Rome.  Livy,  who  drew 
his  information  from  the  Pontifical  Archives,  dating 
probably  as  far  back  as  the  reign  of  Numa,  speaks  so 
often  and  so  exactly  of  showers  of  ashes,  and  of  "  roarings 
of  the  earth,"  that  it  is  impossible  to  deny  the  facts.  The 
burial-fields  of  Alba  Longa  on  the  slopes  of  Monte 
Cucco  and  Monte  Crescenzio  were  found  in  1817,  buried 
under  three  eruptions,  one  of  pozzolana,  one  of  lapillo, 
and  one  of  peperino.  Rome  itself  was  surrounded  by 
thermal  springs,  for  which  the  northwest  section  of  the 
Campus  Martins,  bordering  on  the  Tiber,  was  especially 
conspicuous.    Heavy  vapors  hung  over  the  pool  of  the 

*  La  malaria,  un  fattore  trascurato  nella  storia  di  Greda  e  di  Roma,  trans- 
lated from  the  English  by  Dr.  Francesco  Genovese.  Naples,  Deteken, 
1908. 


4        WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

Tarentum  ^  fed  by  hot  sulphur  springs,  and  tongues  of 
flame  were  seen  issuing  from  the  cracks  of  the  earth. 
Hence  the  name  campus  ignifer  —  the  fiery  field  —  given 
to  the  place,  and  the  popular  belief  in  its  connection 
with  the  infernal  realms.  Of  the  same  nature  were 
the  Aquae  Lautulse,  which  formed  another  pool  near  the 
Senate  house  in  the  Argiletum.  The  Forum  itself  was 
connected  by  tradition  with  earthquakes  and  chasms, 
and  other  telluric  disturbances ;  ^  and  Livy  relates  how 
in  the  year  213  b.  c.  a  powerful  jet  of  water  burst  from 
the  top  of  the  "street  of  Insteius,"  in  consequence  of 
which  that  lane  (corresponding  to  the  present  Via  di 
Sant'  Agata  de'  Goti)  was  transformed  into  a  rushing 
torrent. 

I  need  not  insist  on  the  fact  that  as  long  as  the  Alban 
volcanoes  remained  active,  life  prospered  within  their 
sphere  of  influence,  on  the  Campagna  side  as  well  as 
on  the  side  of  the  Pontine  district,  as  far  as  the  Island 
(promontory)  of.  Circe.  According  to  a  tradition  related 
by  Pliny  (iii,  59) ,  there  were  in  prehistoric  times  no  less 
than  twenty-three  towns  thriving  in  that  now  deserted 
plain ;  and  on  the  Campagna  side  of  the  volcanoes  colo- 
nists from  Alba  Longa  had  founded  permanent  settle- 
ments in  places  which,  at  a  later  time,  became  hotbeds 
of  malaria.  Speaking  of  Fidense,  Tellense,  Collatia, 
Antemnse,  etc.,  the  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  attest 
that  no  vestige  was  left  of  them :  periere  sine  vestigio  I 
We  may  gather  from  these  facts  the  belief  that  malaria 

^  Discovered  by  the  author  in  1885.  See  Ruins  and  Excavations  of 
Ancient  Rome,  p.  446. 

^  Dr.  Breislak,  in  a  memoir  on  the  "Physical  Topography  of  Rome," 
quoted  by  Brocchi,  p..  110,  contends  that  the  depression  of  the  Forum, 
surrounded  by  the  Palatine,  Cselian,  Esquiline,  Viminal,  Quirinal,  and 
Capitoline,  was  originally  a  volcanic  crater. 


THE    LAND    OF   SATURN  5 

existed  in  a  mild  form  at  the  time  of  the  foundation  of 
the  thirty  colonies  of  Alba  Longa ;  ^  that  its  virulence 
increased  after  the  extinction  of  volcanic  life  in  Latium ; 
and  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  before 
Christ  it  had  become  endemic,  causing  a  great  diminu- 
tion in  the  physical  and  moral  energies  of  the  Roman 
race. 

The  earliest  hints  about  intermittent  fever  in  Roman 


Tellense,  one  of  the  ruined  early  cities  of  Latium 

literature  are  to  be  found  in  Plautus'  "  Curculio"  (i,  17) : 
"  Did  the  fever  leave  you  yesterday  or  the  day  before  ?" 
and  in  Terence's  "Hecyra"  (iii,  ii,  22) :  "What  is  thy 
case?  Fever.  Quotidian.^  So  they  say."  Cato,  "DeRe 
Rustica"  (157),  distinctly  mentions  as  symptoms  of  the 
ague  "a  black  bile  and  a  turgid  liver."  Pliny  (vii,  50) 
says  that  the  excitement  of  fighting  a  successful  battle 
against  the  Allobrogi  and  the  Arverni  on  the  banks  of 

^  Luigi  Canina,  "Sulle  trenta  colonie  Albane,"  in  Atti  Accademiad'  Ar- 
cheologia,  March,  1839. 


6       WANDERINGS   IN   THE   ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  Isere,  in  the  year  21  B.  c,  freed  the  Roman  general, 
Q.  Fabius  Maximus,  from  the  quartan  fever.  But  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  modern  theory  of  infection 
through  the  microbes  of  ague  is  to  be  found  in  Varro's 
"De  Be  Rustica,"  where  he  contends  that  in  marshy 
districts  "prosper  insects  so  infinitesimal  in  size  that 
no  human  eye  can  detect  their  presence."  These  micro- 
organisms entering  the  human  system  by  inhalation 
generate  "difficult  cases."  According  to  Priscianus, 
the  tertian  and  quartan  fevers  were  supposed  to  be  the 
daughters  of  Saturn.  "The  Romans,"  he  says,  "have 
dedicated  altars  to  Fever,  because  the  intermittent  ones 
Saturni  filias  esse  affirmavit  antiquitas'' ;  and  when  we 
consider  that  the  Campagna  itself  was  called  the  "  Land 
of  Saturn,"  we  wonder  whether  this  traditional  connec- 
tion between  the  Land,  the  Fever,  and  the  old  Italian 
God  of  Agriculture  was  not  something  more  real  and 
tangible,  to  the  ancients,  than  a  poetical  fancy. 

The  sanitation  of  the  city  and  of  the  Campagna,  on 
a  large  scale,  was  undertaken  towards  the  end  of  the 
Republic,  and  continued  by  Augustus  and  his  successors. 
The  means  employed  to  secure  satisfactory  results  were 
the  draining  of  stagnant  waters ;  a  rational  system  of 
sewers;  the  substitution  of  spring  water  for  that  of  pol- 
luted wells,  the  water  being  carried  down  from  moun- 
tain sources  by  fourteen  aqueducts,  339  miles  in  ag- 
gregate length ;  the  paving  and  multiplication  of  roads ; 
the  sanitary  equipment  of  human  dwellings  even  when 
intended  for  laborers  and  farm-hands ;  the  invention  of 
columbaria  as  places  of  burial,  and  the  substitution 
of  cremation  for  interment;  and  lastly  the  organization 
of  medical  help.  The  results  were  astonishing.  Pliny 
says  that  Lauren tum  was  more  delightful  in  summer 
than  in  winter;  while  in  modern  times  the  place  was 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN 


Picturesque  remains  of  aqueducts  in  the  Valle  degli  Arci 

quoted  until  a  few  years  ago  ^  as  one  of  the  most  danger- 
ous on  the  coast.  Antoninus  Pius  and  M.  Aurelius 
preferred  their  villa  at  Lorium  (La  Bottaccia,  near  Cas- 
tel  di  Guido)  to  all  other  imperial  suburban  residences, 
and  the  correspondence  with  Fronto  proves  their  pre- 
sence there  in  midsummer.  The  same  can  be  said  of 
Hadrian's  villa  below  Tivoli,  of  the  Villa  Quintiliorum 
on  the  Appian  Way,  of  that  of  Lucius  Verus  on  the  Via 
Clodia  at  Acqua  Traversa,  etc.  The  Campagna  must 
have  looked  in  those  happy  days  like  a  great  park, 
studded  with  villages,  farms,  cottages,  lordly  residences, 
temples,  fountains,  and  tombs. ^ 

The  present  generation  has  once  more  conquered 
the  evil :  Rome  has  become  the  best  drained,  the  best 
watered,  the  healthiest  capital  of  Europe,  London  per- 

^  The  draining  of  the  Pantano  di  Lauro,  near  Pliny's  villa,  was  under- 
taken by  H.  M.  King  Victor  Emmanuel  in  1907,  as  part  of  the  scheme  for 
the  hydraulic  sanitation  of  the  royal  shooting  farm  of  Castel  Porziano. 

2  See  Ancient  Rome,  chs.  iii  and  x;  also  Ruins  and  Excavations,  p.  7. 


8       WANDERINGS   IN   THE    ROMAN    CAMPAGNA 

haps  excepted ;  and  cases  of  malaria,  even  near  the  former 
lagoons  of  Ostia,  Ardea,  Vaccarese,  and  Campo  Salino, 
have  diminished  in  number  and  in  virulence.  Ostia, 
the  population  of  which,  from  the  beginning  of  July 
to  the  end  of  September,  v^as  reduced  to  three  fever- 
stricken  caretakers,  has  now  become  a  pleasant  rendez- 
vous for  Sunday  excursionists.  Wire  nettings  against 
the  insidious  anopheles  have  done  more  for  the  peasantry 
of  the  Maremma  than  the  taking  up  by  the  State  of  the 
preparation  and  sale  of  quinine. 

The  name  Campagna  is  applied  to  the  gently  undu- 
lating plain,  forty  miles  long  and  thirty  wide,  inclosed 
by  the  Sabatino-Ciminian  belt  of  craters  on  the  north, 
the  fore-Apennines  on  the  east,  the  Alban  Hills  on  the 
south,  watered  and  drained  by  the  Tiber,  on  the  banks 
of  which  Rome  sits  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  moun- 
tains and  the  sea.  The  Campagna  is  therefore  a  modern, 
arbitrary  topographical  formation  made  up  of  three 
sections:  the  Etruscan,  between  the  coast  and  the  Tiber; 
the  Sabine,  between  the  Tiber  and  the  Anio ;  and  the 
Latin,  between  the  left  banks  of  these  two  rivers  and 
the  coast.  It  is  an  amplification,  as  it  were,  of  the  old 
ager  Romanus,  the  metropolitan  territory,  the  limits 
of  which,  as  we  have  just  seen,  did  not  exceed  at  the 
time  of  the  kings  a  radius  of  five  or  six  miles  from  the 
Palatine.  The  same  metropolitan  territory  now  covers 
a  surface  of  487,600  acres, ^  equal  to  about  762  square 
miles,  with  a  population  of  seven  hundred  thousand 
people.  Leaving  aside  the  narrow  belt  of  cultivated  land, 
gardens,  orchards,  and  vineyards  which  surrounds  the 
inhabited    centres    (Rome,    Isola   Farnese,    Fiumicino, 

^  The  territory  within  the  municipal  jurisdiction  of  Rome  measures 
exactly  457,000  acres.     . 


THE    LAND   OF   SATURN  9 

Ostia,  etc.),  all  the  rest  is  divided  into  about  two  hun- 
dred farms  or  tenute,  the  surface  of  which  varies  from  a 
minimum  of  126  acres  (Pedica  di  Castel  di  Leva)  to  a 
maximum  of  15,000  (Tenuta  di  Campomorto) . ^ 

The  Campagna  is,  so  to  speak,  a  comparatively  re- 
cent land.  In  the  tertiary  period,  the  waves  of  the  sea 
lashed  the  foot  of  the  limestone  mountains  at  Cameria, 
Tibur,  and  Prseneste,  forming  a  bay,  out  of  the  depths 
of  which  the  hills  of  Sant'  Angelo,  Poggio  Cesi,  and 
Monticelli  ^  rose  as  an  archipelago  of  white  peaks.  With 
the  advent  of  the  quaternary  epoch  two  groups  of  vol- 
canoes emerged  at  the  two  ends  of  the  bay,  —  the  Saba- 
tine  on  the  north,  the  Alban  on  the  south,  —  belching 
forth  such  masses  of  eruptive  matter  that  the  bottom 
of  the  sea  began  to  rise  until  it  became  a  swampy  ledge 
of  coast  skirting  the  base  of  the  limestone  mountains. 

The  subsequent  changes,  which  have  given  to  the 
Campagna  its  present  furrowed  aspect,  are  the  exclu- 
sive work  of  water  agencies,  especially  of  the  two  mighty 
streams  now  represented  by  the  Tiber  and  the  Anio. 
The  first,  7000  feet  wide  and  130  deep,  emptied  itself 
into  the  sea  between  Ponte  Galera  and  Dragoncello, 
eight  or  nine  miles  inland  from  its  present  mouth. 
At  the  end  of  the  quaternary  period,  when  men  first  ap- 
peared in  these  lands,  the  Tiber  had  diminished  almost 

^  The  largest  farms  of  the  Campagna  are  Vaccarese,  of  the  RospigHosi, 
7549  acres;  Ostia,  of  the  Aldobrandini,  8763;  Castel  di  Guido,  of  the  Fal- 
conieri,  10, 61*^;  Conca,  of  Signor  Mazzoleni,  12,937;  Campomorto,  of  the 
same,  15,021.  King  Victor  Emmanuel's  shooting  farm  of  Castel  Porziano 
covers  an  area  of  19,135  acres,  part  of  which  is  crown  or  state  property, 
part  is  leased  from  the  Chigi. 

^  Sant'  Angelo  in  Capoccia  has  been  identified  with  Medullia,  and 
Monticelli  with  Corniculum,  by  Gell  and  Nibby.  It  is  a  pure  matter  of 
conjecture. 


10     WANDERINGS   IN   THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

to  its  present  size  and  volume ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  this 
diminution  it  retains  enough  of  its  erosive  power  to  carry 
down  to  the  sea  every  year  eight  million  and  a  half 
tons  of  sand  and  mud,  a  volume  of  over  four  million 
cubic  yards.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  line  of  the  coast 
should  advance  westward  at  a  considerable  rate.  When 
King  Ancus  Marcius  founded  Ostia  as  a  harbor  for 
Rome,  Ficana,  the  oldest  human  settlement  near  the 
bar  of  the  river,  was  already  5500  yards  inland.  Ostia 
itself  stands  now  7000  yards  from  the  shore ;  the  Torre 
san  Michele,  built  in  1567  by  Michelangelo,  stands 
2200  yards;  the  Torre  Clementina,  at  Fiumicino,  built 
in  1773,  "in  ipso  maris  Supercilio,"  800  yards.  The 
average  advance  of  the  coast  at  the  Ostia  mouth  is 
thirty  feet,  at  the  Fiumicino  mouth  ten  feet,  per  year. 
This  formation  of  the  Roman  Campagna  by  the  com- 
bined action  of  land  and  water  powers,  as  well  as  its 
general  outline  and  its  boundaries,  can  be  best  studied 
from  the  Monte  Mario,  ^  which  advances  like  a  bold 
promontory  into  the  valley  of  the  Tiber,  one  mile  north 
of  St.  Peter's.  The  whole  plain  stretches  at  our  feet, 
framed  in  purple  mountains  of  exquisite  outline :  Rocca 
Romana,  1987  feet,  Monte  Calvi,  1787  feet,  Monte 
Virginio,  1782  feet,  on  the  north;  Monte  Gennaro, 
4187  feet,  Monte  Guadagnolo,  4019  feet,  and  the  citadel 
of  Prseneste,  on  the  east ;  Monte  Cavo,  3000  feet,  and 
the  Punta  delle  Faette,  3135  feet,  on  the  south.  The 
highest  peaks  visible  from  our  point  of  vantage  are 
the  Monte  Terminillo  above  Rieti,  7302  feet  high,  and 

^  The  Monte  Mario,  the  highest  point  within  the  metropolitan  district, 
—  the  Mons  Vaticanus  of  ancient  writers,  —  480  feet  above  the  sea,  is 
not  accessible  to  ordinary  visitors,  having  been  selected  as  the  basis  for 
the  military  defence  of  Rome.  Permits  are  sometimes  granted  by  the 
Minister  of  War. 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN 


11 


the  Monte  Velino,  above  the  Lake  of  Fucino,  8207  feet. 
They  usually  keep  their  shining  coat  of  snow  till  the 
middle  of  May. 

From  what  has  just  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  only 
three  geological  formations  can  be  traced  in  the  Cam- 
pagna,  —  the  tertiary  or  argillaceous,  the  volcanic,  and 
the  quaternary  or  diluvial.  I  mention  these  particulars 
because  each  one  has  a  distinct  bearing  and  signification 
in  the  history  and  archaeology  of  the  Campagna.    From 


Smaller  mouth  of  the  Tiber  at  Fiumicino 

the  argillaceous  deposits  of  the  Vatican  district  the  world- 
famous  Roman  bricks  and  tiles  have  been  made  and 
exported  to  every  harbor  of  the  Mediterranean  for  the 
last  twenty-three  centuries.  From  the  volcanic  strata 
come  tufa  and  pozzolana  and  peperino,  materials  with 


12     WANDERINGS  IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

which  every  student  of  Roman  archaeology  has  become 
famihar;  and  from  the  quaternary  deposits  comes  tra- 
vertine, the  material  dearest  to  Roman  architects  from 
the  time  when  it  was  first  used,  two  centuries  before 
Christ,  to  our  own  days.  The  present  generation,  for 
reasons  that  may  be  connected  with  political  influences, 
but  have  nothing  in  common  with  art  and  good  taste, 
is  trying  to  banish  travertine  from  practical  use  and  to 
substitute  a  new  stone,  which  by  its  unfitness  to  take 
the  stain  of  ages  —  that  indescribable  hue  of  dried 
leaves  so  appreciated  by  artists  —  will  injure  greatly  the 
harmonious  tone  of  the  Roman  landscape. 

The  Vatican  ridge,  culminating  in  the  Monte  Mario, 
is  covered  with  pliocene  marls  abounding  in  marine 
fossils ;  other  traces  of  Neptunian  agencies  have  been 
found  and  described,  in  other  sections  of  the  land.  To 
explain  the  state  of  things,  Antonio  Nibby,  the  leader 
of  modern  explorers  of  the  Campagna,  used  to  quote 
the  evidence  of  Straton  of  Lampsacus,  the  "Naturalist," 
who  flourished  about  289  b.  c.  as  successor  of  Theo- 
phrastus  in  the  leadership  of  the  Peripatetic  School. 
Straton  contended  that  at  one  time  the  Black  and 
the  Caspian  seas  and  the  sea  of  Aral  formed  but  one 
ocean,  two  thousand  miles  long  and  six  hundred  wide ; 
that  its  level  having  been  raised  to  a  great  height  by 
the  inflow  of  the  three  powerful  streams  (the  Danube, 
the  Volga,  and  the  Amoor)  draining  half  the  continents 
of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  ocean  had  burst  its  barriers 
and  discharged  itself  into  the  much  lower  basin  of  the 
Mediterranean,  through  the  gaps  of  the  Bosporus  and 
the  Hellespont ;  and  that  the  evidence  of  this  cataclysm 
was  yet  to  be  seen  all  round  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, even  two  or  three  hundred  stadia  inland.  The 
level  of  the  latter  sea  having  been  raised  in  its  turn  many 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  13 

hundred  feet,  the  flood  forced  its  way  into  the  Atlantic 
through  the  gap  of  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 

Straton's  theory,  warmly  supported  by  Strabo  (i,  3), 
has  been  taken  up  in  more  recent  times  by  Dureau  de  la 
Malle  in  his  "Geographic  physique  de  la  Mer  Noire," 
by  Gosselin  in  his  "Commentaries  and  Notes"  to 
Strabo's  translation,  and,  of  course,  by  Sir  William 
Gell,  Nibby's  patron  and  associate  in  the  exploration 
of  the  Campagna.  The  evidence  collected  by  these 
learned  writers  seems  to  leave  no  doubt  that,  wdthin  the 
recollection  of  man,  an  earthquake  or  a  volcanic  out- 
burst, or  the  pressure  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  had  cut  open 
a  channel  through  the  Cyaneae  Islands  and  the  Thracian 
isthmus  once  connecting  Europe  with  Asia,  creating  an 
immense  flood,  the  same  that  Greek  writers  indicate 
by  the  name  of  Deucalion's  deluge.  The  Chronicle  of 
Paros  fixes  its  date  1529  years  before  Christ,  which  is 
the  approximate  epoch  of  the  first  Hellenic  migrations 
into  Italy.  Modern  science  is  less  confiding  in  matters 
of  tradition ;  and  although  the  theory  of  Deucalion's 
deluge  would  help  us  to  explain  certain  anomalies  in  the 
geological  constitution  of  the  Campagna,  and  although 
such  men  as  Newton,  Taylor,  Prideaux,  Selden,  and 
Corsini  have  not  hesitated  to  accept  it  as  an  indis- 
putable fact,  I  shall  only  remark  that  the  first  eastern 
immigration  to  our  lands,  led  by  (Enotrus,  took  place 
about  the  time  indicated,  viz.,  fifteen  centuries  before 
the  Christian  era. 

According  to  ancient  annalists,  the  first  men  to  ap- 
pear and  settle  on  the  newly  made  swampy  plains  of 
the  Campagna  were  the  Siculi,  semi-savage  tribesmen 
of  the  neolithic  epoch,  whose  tribal  centre  was  perhaps 
at  the  falls  of  the  Anio,  on  the  site  of  the  Pelasgian  Tibur. 


14      WANDERINGS   IN   THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

Two  or  three  generations  after  the  flood  the  Siculi  were 
overwhelmed  by  the  joint  forces  of  the  Aborigines  and 
the  Pelasgians,  and  chased  towards  the  south.  The 
seat  of  the  Aborigines  had  been  up  to  that  time  the  val- 
ley of  the  Velino  at  Reate;  their  capital,  Lista;  their 
chief  villages,  Cutiliae,  Trebula,  Orvinium.  The  Pelas- 
gians had  advanced  by  slow  stages  from  the  south, 
marking  their  progress  by  polygonal  structures,  and 
finally  selecting  the  Cicolano  district  for  their  tribal 
centre.  Pelasgians  and  Aborigines  had  already  at- 
tained the  bronze  stage  of  civilization.  They  occupied 
one  by  one  the  sites  vacated  by  the  Siculi  (Antemnse, 
Tellense,  Ficulnea,  Tibur,  etc.),  who,  driven  southward 
from  land  to  land,  found  at  last  a  permanent  refuge 
in  the  island  which  still  bears  their  name,  Sicily.  The 
rule  of  the  two  mixed  races  on  the  Campagna  lasted 
undisturbed  for  about  three  centuries,  to  the  time  of 
the  Trojan  war. 

At  this  time,  that  is  to  say  at  the  transition  period 
from  the  age  of  bronze  to  the  age  of  iron,  a  new  race 
appears  on  the  stage  of  the  Campagna,  a  race  destined 
to  conquer  the  world.  Who  were  the  Latins  ?  Where  did 
they  come  from  ?  What  influence  did  the  fresh  immi- 
grations of  Greek  refugees  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 
led  by  Evander  the  Arcadian,  and  by  ^Eneas,  have 
over  their  destinies  and  civilization  and  early  career  ? 
Desjardins  says  that  the  Latin  race  was  the  hybrid  out- 
come of  the  intercourse  between  the  Siculi,  Aborigines, 
Pelasgians,  Arcadians,  and  Trojans.  "C'est  a  cette 
nation  Latine,  melange  de  Sicules,  d'Aborigenes,  de 
Pelasges,  et  de  Troyens,  et  ay  ant  pour  capitale  et  pour 
centre  politique  et  religieux  la  ville  d'Albe,  que  je 
donne  le  nom  de  Latins."  This  is  not  quite  satisfactory, 
yet  we  have,  at  present,  no  better  theory  to  offer. 


THE    LAND    OF   SATURN 


15 


According  to  tradition,  Alba  Longa  was  founded  by 
Ascanius,  son  of  J^neas,  thirty  years  after  the  landing 
of  the  Trojans  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber  (Laurentum) , 
and  1230  years  before  our  era.  Dionysius  says  that  the 
population  of  this  new  kingdom  of  Alba  was  essentially 


Graves  of  early  Latins,  probably  of  the  founders  of  Rome, 
discovered  in  the  Forum 


of  eastern  origin,  —  Phrygians,  Arcadians,  Pelasgians, 
—  in  a  rude  stage  of  civilization,  especially  as  regards  the 
manufacture  of  pottery.  The  statement  of  the  historian 
is  confirmed  by  the  discoveries  made  since  1817  in  the 
prehistoric  cemeteries  of  the  Alban  district,  at  Monte 
Cucco,  Monte  Crescenzio,  Marino,  and  Grottaf errata. 
It  seems,  therefore,  that  we  old  Latins  owe  our  existence, 


16     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN    CAMPAGNA 

as  a  race  and  as  a  nation,  to  a  foreign  invasion  (by  sea)  ' 
of  the  Campagna,  and  to  the  joining  of  the  conquerors 
and  the  conquered  in  a  confederacy,  the  meeting-place 
of  which  was  at  the  Caput  Aquae  Ferentinse.  A  visit  to 
this  wooded  glen,  now  called  the  Parco  di  Colonna,  which 
winds  its  way  into  the  heart  of  the  Alban  craters  a  little 
below  Marino,^  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  classical  stu- 
dent as  well  as  the  artist  and  the  poet.  In  following  the 
path  by  the  brook  toward  its  springs,  our  thoughts 
wander  back  to  the  tragic  fate  of  Turnus  Herdonius, 
the  chieftain  of  Aricia,  drowned  at  the  springs  them- 
selves by  order  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  —  his  head 
being  held  down  with  a  grating  and  a  heap  of  stones 
upon  it,  —  and  also  to  the  great  meeting  of  the  con- 
federates which  led  to  the  battle  of  Lake  Regillus.  The 
Caput  Aquse  Ferentinae  is  still  rising  in  a  clear  volume 
at  the  base  of  a  great  mass  of  rock  crowned  with  ever- 
greens, and  there  are  rustic,  moss-grown  seats  around, 
which  seem  to  invite  the  visitor  to  rest  in  solitude,  and  to 
recall  the  events  of  the  past.^ 

At  the  time  of  its  greatest  prosperity  it  was  impos- 
sible to  determine  how  far  the  metropolitan  district  ex- 
tended into  the  Campagna.  There  were  three  zones  or 
belts  of  buildings :  the  inner  one,  within  the  old  walls  of 
the  Kings,  being  called  that  of  the  continentia  cedificia, 
because  its  public  and  private  edifices  touched  and 
crowded  each  other  in  a  limited  space  (21,239  tenement 
houses  and  749  patrician  dwellings  in  an  area  of  only  3000 

^  The  keys  of  the  Parco  can  be  obtained  at  the  Colonna  Palace,  Marino, 
from  the  agent  of  the  duke.  The  entrance  gate  is  at  the  south  end  of  the 
village,  on  the  left  of  the  viaduct  over  which  the  highroad  to  Castel  Gan- 
dolfo  crosses  the  Aqua  Ferentina. 

^  See  The  Golden  Days  of  the  Renaissance,  p.  196. 


OFTHE 

UNJVERSITY 

OF 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  19 

acres).  The  second,  between  the  walls  of  the  Kings  and 
the  line  of  the  Octroi,^  with  houses  and  edifices  standing 
on  their  own  ground  (25,061  tenement  houses  and  953 
patrician  palaces  in  4000  acres),  was  that  of  the  expa- 
tiantia  tecta.  The  third  or  outer  belt  of  gardens,  villas, 
cottages,  suburban  hostelries,  small  farms,  and  scattered 
habitations  was  called  the  extrema  tectorum,  and  ex- 
tended as  far  as  the  third  milestone  outside  the  Servian 
gates.  We  may,  therefore,  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
metropolitan  district,  with  its  odd  milHon  people,  ex- 
panded from  the  Milvian  bridge  on  the  north  to  the 
tomb  of  Metella  on  the  south,  from  the  Villa  Gordiano- 
rum  (Torre  de  Schiavi)  on  the  east  to  the  gardens  of 
Csesar  towards  the  setting  sun.  The  district,  oval  in 
shape,  measured,  therefore,  seven  miles  on  its  greater 
diameter,  six  on  the  less,  and  these,  strange  to  say,  are 
the  exact  limits  marked  by  the  latest  Piano  Regolatore 
for  the  extension  of  the  city  in  the  next  twenty-five  years. 
We  should  be  greatly  mistaken,  however,  in  supposing 
that  life  and  bustle  and  traffic  and  cultivation  stopped 
outright  beyond  those  limits,  as  happens  now.  Rome 
was  not  cut  off  in  old  times  from  the  neighboring  cities 
of  Veii,  Momentum,  Tibur,  Prseneste,  Tusculum,  and 
Bovillse  by  a  stretch  of  desert ;  farms  and  vineyards  and 
villas  linked  the  greater  and  smaller  centres  into  one 
great  park  teeming  with  life.  The  only  sections  of  the 
Campagna  which  make  an  exception  to  this  rule  are 
those  crossed  by  the  trans tiberine  roads,  the  Vitellia, 
the  two  Aurelise,  and  the  Cornelia  leading  to  the  Etrus- 
can Maremma.  I  have  crossed  these  lonesome  lands 
over  and  over  again  to  gather  materials  for  my  archae- 
ological  map,  and  I  have  found  none ;  or,  to  be  more 

^  The  line  of  the  Octroi  is  identical  with  that  of  the  walls  built  about 
27*2  A.  D.  by  the  Emperor  Aurelian. 


W       WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

exact,  I  have  found  but  few  oases  in  the  wilderness, 
one  perhaps  in  an  area  of  ten  square  miles.  This  state 
of  things  proves  that  the  Etruscan  section  of  the  Cam- 
pagna,  between  the  Tiber  and  the  sea,  was  covered  with 
forests,  the  haunt  of  the  deer  and  the  wild  boar,  rem- 
nants of  which  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  farms  of  Casetta 
di  Mattei,  Malnome,  Vaccarese,  etc.  Pliny  has  left  us 
a  graphic  description  of  the  ancient  Maremma,  which 
he  was  obliged  to  cross  on  his  way  to  Laurentum.  "The 
aspect  of  the  country  is  not  monotonous,  because  the 
road  sometimes  runs  through  ancient  forests,  some- 
times through  meadows  and  pasture  land  where  grow 
and  prosper  herds  of  horses  and  oxen,  and  flocks  of 
sheep,  which,  driven  from  the  mountains  by  the  early 
frosts,  come  to  winter  in  the  tepid  Campagna."  Any 
one  of  my  readers  who  has  followed  in  Pliny's  foot- 
steps to  Ostia,  Castel  Fusano,  or  Pratica  di  Mare  can 
vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  his  description. 

As  regards  the  Sabine  and  Latin  park-like  sections 
of  the  Campagna,  between  Rome  and  the  mountains, 
we  have  only  to  compare  their  archaeological  survey 
with  the  up-to-date  maps  of  the  Istituto  Geografico 
Militare  to  gauge  at  once  the  immense  difference  be- 
tween its  former  and  its  present  condition.  Let  us 
choose,  for  instance,  the  ground  crossed  by  the  Via 
Latina  between  the  seventh  and  eleventh  milestones, 
where  the  lonesome  wayfarer  of  to-day  hears  no  sound  of 
human  voices,  no  singing  of  birds,  and  looks  in  vain  for 
shade  or  shelter,  or  for  a  draught  of  water  to  quench 
his  thirst.  In  ancient  times  the  same  length  of  road 
skirted  four  thriving  villages,  and  a  dozen  or  more 
country  houses  of  the  patricians.  The  first  village  was 
discovered  and  excavated  in  1865  by  Giuseppe  Gagliardi 
near  the  Osteria  del  Curato.  Its  classic  name  is  unknown. 


OF  THE 


THE   LAND   OF  SATURN 


23 


The  second,  called  "Respublica  Decimiensium "  (from 
its  location  near  the  tenth  milestone),  was  found  in 
1885  in  the  Vigna  Senni  atCiampino.  The  third,  called 
"Vicus   Angusculanus,"   was   explored   by  the  author 


A  comparison  between  the  ancient  (Hi)  and  modern  (D) 
conditions  of  the  Campagna 

three  years  ago  in  the  Vigna  Gentilini ;  the  fourth  was 
found  by  Abeken  in  1840  at  the  head  of  the  beautiful 
Valle  Marciana.  Besides  these  four  centres  of  life, 
there  were  a  villa  of  the  Licinii  Murena  at  Morena, 
that  of  Vicinius  Opimianus  at  Ciampino,  that  of  the 


24      WANDERINGS   IN   THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

lavolenii  at  Borghetto,  an  estate  of  Trajan's  sister  in 
the  Valle  Marciana,  a  temple  dedicated  to  Septimius 
Severus  at  Bagnara ;  noble  mausolea  lining  the  four  miles 
of  road;  a  pagan  sanctuary  and  place  of  pilgrimage  in 
the  Vigna  Giusti ;  a  Christian  basilica  and  catacombs  in 
the  Vigna  Gentilini,  and  fountains  and  pleasant  shade 
and  hostelries  for  the  comfort  of  man  and  beast. 

The  most  conspicuous  ruins  of  the  Campagna  are 
those  of  water-reservoirs  and  tombs,  because  their 
inner  shell  or  core  being  built  in  rubble- work  or  in  con- 
crete, they  have  better  withstood  the  ravages  of  time, 
and  they  have  escaped  the  cupidity  of  mediaeval  and 
modern  stone-cutters  and  lime-burners.  The  aque- 
ducts, also,  for  .reasons  which  I  have  explained  in  another 
work,  have  been  spared  to  a  certain  extent,  to  form  the 
most  characteristic  feature  of  our  suburban  landscape. 
These  channels,  borne  for  miles  upon  triumphal  arches 
at  a  prodigious  height,  would  still  be  in  working  order 
but  for  Pope  Sixtus  V  and  for  the  Hospital  of  San  Sal- 
vatore  at  Laterano ;  the  Pope  built  his  Aquedotto  Felice 
with  the  materials  of  the  Marcian,  while  the  trustees  of 
the  hospital,  wjienever  they  found  themselves  in  need 
of  funds,  would  put  up  at  auction  one,  two,  or  three 
arcades  of  the  Claudian,  which  unfortunately  crossed 
their  farm  of  Arco  Travertino  on  the  Via  Latina.  In 
their  archives  (vol.  iv,  p.  5)  I  have  found  documents  of 
the  sale  of  a  monumental  arch  over  which  the  Claudian 
spanned  the  highroad ;  and  again  the  sale  of  four  piers 
to  a  Bartolomeo  Vitali,  of  two  to  the  brothers  Guidotti, 
and  so  on.* 

The  fate  of  the  tombs  and  mausolea  which  lined  the 
highroads  has  been  well  described  by  Francesco  Fico- 

*  Lanciani,  /  comentarii  di  Frontino,  p.  149. 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN  25 

roni,  a  seventeenth  century  antiquary  and  excavator  of 
no  classic  culture,  but  a  keen  observer  of  facts  and  gath- 
erer of  archaeological  evidence.  Roman  family  vaults, 
he  remarks,^  contained  a  funeral  banqueting-hall,  level 
with  the  road,  and  a  crypt  below,  where  the  ashes  w^re 
kept  in  urns,  or  the  bodies  laid  to  rest  in  sarcophagi.  The 
former  standing  above  ground,  within  easy  reach  of  the 
passer-by,  must  have  been  stripped  of  their  marbles  and 
bronzes  at  a  very  early  period.  The  custom  of  burning 
the  marbles  of  abandoned  tombs  for  lime  became  so 
common  in  the  fourth  century  that  the  Emperors  had 
to  enact  capital  punishment  as  a  penalty  for  the  offence. 
In  349,  sixty-one  years  before  the  first  barbarian  inroad 
of  Alaric,  the  Emperor  Constans  substituted  a  heavy 
fine  for  capital  punishment,  so  great  was  the  number 
of  those  who  had  deserved  it!  These  provisions  may 
have  saved  from  spoliation  the  tombs  more  exposed 
to  view;  but  those  standing  back  from  the  highroads, 
screened  by  trees  or  by  the  undulations  of  the  ground, 
probably  disappeared  faster  than  ever. 

The  underground  rooms,  or  hypogsea,  suffered  less 
damage,  and  many  escaped  discovery  altogether. 
Search  was  made  in  them  for  jewelry  and  gold;  but 
the  cinerary  urns  and  the  sarcophagi  were  left  undis- 
turbed. This  is  the  reason  why  so  many  beautiful 
crypts  are  brought  to  light  at  no  rare  intervals  in  the 
Campagna,  notwithstanding  the  active  search  made 
for  them  in  past  centuries.  In  truth,  such  precautions 
were  taken  to  conceal  the  way  of  entrance  that  their 
rediscovery  is  mostly  due  to  chance.  The  secret  pas- 
sage leading  to  the  grave  of  Csecilia  Metella  was  found 
by  accident  in  1540,  by  a  stone-cutter  engaged  in  wrench- 
ing away  some  blocks  of  travertine.   A  similar  discovery 

^  Francesco  Ficoroni,  La  holla  d'  oro  dei  fanciulli  romani.  Part  ll. 


26      WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

took  place  under  Alexander  VII  (1655-67)  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Pyramid  of  Caius  Cestius,  the  entrance  to 
which  was  so  artfully  concealed  that  it  could  only  be 
located  by  the  hollow  sound  of  the  stones  with  which 
it  had  been  blocked. 

Ficoroni  has  offered  an  ingenious  suggestion  in  regard 
to  the  engraved  gems  or  cameos  which  are  found  in  such 
numbers  in  the  Campagna.  After  stating  that  out  of 
ninety- two  sepulchral  chambers,  excavated  by  him  in 
the  Vigna  Moroni  near  the  Appian  Gate,  between  1705 
and  1709,  only  one  had  not  been  searched  before,  he 
adds  :  "  My  workmen,  sifting  the  earth  which  filled  these 
columbaria,  or  the  passages  between  them,  found  a 
great  many  cameos  and  valuable  stones,  broken  or  in- 
dented round  the  edge.  These  cameos  are  constantly 
picked  up  in  vineyards  and  orchards,  which  extend  over 
ancient  cemeteries,  and  as  they  still  show  traces  of  the 
glue  by  means  of  which  they  were  fastened  into  their 
sockets,  they  must  have  been  thrown  away  as  a  use- 
less incumbrance  by  those  who  were  seeking  for  metal 
alone." 

The  latest  discovery  connected  with  the  intentional 
concealment  of  rich  graves  took  place  in  June  of  last 
year  (1908),  at  the  first  milestone  of  the  Via  CoUa- 
tina,  where  the  new  freight  station  of  Rome  is  being 
erected.  Here  a  mass  of  concrete  was  found,  and  inside 
of  it  a  recess  lined  with  bricks,  and  inside  the  recess, 
in  the  core  of  the  concrete,  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
sarcophagi  I  have  ever  seen,  a  masterpiece  of  Hadrian's 
golden  age.  It  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  full-grown 
man,  a  perfume  goblet,  and  a  silver  penny  of  the  time 
of  Titus.  Judging  from  the  scenes  represented  on  the 
front  of  the  coffin,  the  buried  man  must  have  served 
on  the  staff  of  Trajan  in  one  or  more  of  his  Dacian 


THE   LAND   OF  SATURN  29 

campaigns,  and  attained  great  distinction.  What  most 
impresses  the  beholder  of  this  splendid  work  is  the  har- 
monious distribution  of  the  groups,  the  exquisite  care 
of  details,  so  artfully  concealed  that  it  does  not  inter- 
fere with  the  general  effect  of  the  composition,  and  the 
clever  way  in  which  the  national  characteristics  of  the 
conquerors  and  the  conquered  are  rendered:  the  Ro- 
mans with  clear-cut,  refined  features  and  slender  figures, 
the  Dacians  with  unkempt  hair  and  beard,  and  power- 
ful, heavy  frames.  The  sarcophagus  is  now  exhibited 
in  the  Museo  Nazionale  alle  Terme. 

I  must  now  discuss  a  question  strictly  connected 
with  the  history  and  fate  of  the  Campagna,  that  of 
the  summer  villas  of  the  wealthy  and  the  fashionable. 
There  cannot  be  any  doubt  that  the  sunny  slope  of  Tus- 
culum.  Alba,  Tibur,  and  Prseneste  did  offer  admirable 
sites  for  the  erection  of  villas  and  cottages ;  but  it  is 
equally  certain  that,  owing  to  their  proximity  to  Rome 
and  to  their  small  height  above  the  sea,  these  sites  did 
not  give  the  careworn  citizens  sufficient  change  of  air 
to  recuperate,  and  gather  fresh  strength  for  future  labors. 
Why,  then,  do  Roman  villas  and  summer  residences 
crowd  in  such  numbers  on  the  very  boundary  line  of 
the  Campagna,  in  which  the  germs  of  malaria  were 
always  lurking,  when  their  owners  —  masters  of  the 
Roman  world  —  could  choose  more  attractive  and 
healthier  sites  on  the  Campanian  and  Tyrrhenian  coast, 
on  the  Riviera,  on  the  Italian  or  Swiss  lakes,  on  the 
Alps,  and  among  the  watering-places  of  Savoy,  of  the 
Pyrenees,  and  of  the  Rhine  ? 

The  answer  is  easily  given.  Travelling  in  ancient 
times  was  so  uncomfortable  and  so  dangerous,  from 
want  of  mail  service,  of  postal  and  telegraphic  arrange- 


30      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

merits,  and  of  hotel  accommodation,  from  brigandage 
and  from  the  steepness  of  mountain  roads,  that  private 
famihes,  no  matter  how  wealthy  and  how  much  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  the  tourist,  shrank  from  undertaking 
long  and  tedious  journeys  unless  impelled  by  duty,  or 
on  an  official  mission.  No  comparison,  therefore,  of  the 
summer  residence  of  the  wealthy  and  fashionable  can  be 
established  between  ancient  and  modern  times ;  and  I  do 
not  think  that  the  Romans  in  general,  unless  they  were 
millionaires,  debated,  at  the  return  of  the  hot  season, 
whether  they  would  give  preference  to  a  British,  Gallic, 
German,  or  Helvetic  watering-place,  because  of  the  dis- 
tance and  hardship  of  travel.  Used  as  we  are  to  fly 
through  the  Alps  in  a  transcontinental  express,  we  hardly 
realize  what  it  meant  for  a  Roman  family  to  cross  from 
Clavenna  (Chiavenna)  to  the  Curia  Rhsetorum  (Coire) 
by  the  Septimer  and  Splligen  passes,  or  from  Augusta 
Prsetoria  (Aosta)  to  Octodurus  (Martigny)  by  the  Great 
St.  Bernard.  I  mention  these  two  passes,  not  because 
they  were  the  principal  and  the  most  popular  lines  of 
communication  between  Italy  and  the  northern  pro- 
vinces of  the  empire,  but  because  they  are  personally 
and  archseologically  better  known  to  me.  But  what  is 
known  about  them  may  be  equally  applied  to  the  Mons 
Matrona  (Montgenevre),  to  the  Cremonis  Jugum  (Cra- 
mont),  to  the  Mons  Adula  (St.  Gothard),  or  to  the  many 
passes  of  the  Rhsetian  and  Carnian  Alps.  In  the  Ro- 
mansch  district,  for  instance,  the  population  not  only 
speaks  the  language  of  which  the  first  elements  were 
sown  among  them  when  Drusus  the  Senior  crossed  for 
the  first  time  the  Maloia  and  the  Engadine,  but  retains 
the  names  that  were  given  to  roads,  peaks,  and  passes 
by  the  first  Roman  conquerors;  such  as  the  ''bad  road" 
(mala  via,  Maloia),  the  "wintry  road"  (hibernina, Ber- 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  31 

nina),  the  "white  road"  (Albula),  the  ''high  village" 
(Vicus  Sopranus),  the  "head  of  the  lake"  (Summus 
lacus,  Samolaco),  the  "mills"  (MoHns),  the  pass  of  Jul 
(Julier),  the  pass  of  Septimius  (Septimer),  and  so  forth. 
But  for  the  study  of  a  typical  Roman  transalpine  road 
the  Jugum  Poeninum  or  Great  St.  Bernard  stands  fore- 
most on  account  of  the  excavations  and  researches  made 
at  its  various  stations,  hospices,  and  refuges  by  Promis, 
de  Loges,  Auber,  Castelfranco,  von  Duhn,  de  la  Blan- 
chere,  de  Saulcy,  Desjardins,  and  Ferrero,  from  whose 
writings  I  have  collected  the  following  information.^ 

The  ancient  road,  on  leaving  Aosta  by  the  north  gate, 
followed  the  line  of  the  modern  one  to  Endracinum 
(Etroubles  or  St.  Remy),  and  thence  ascended  the  Italian 
slope  of  the  pass  in  zigzags  of  straight  stretches  of  two 
or  three  hundred  feet  each.  It  was  not  protected  from 
avalanches  or  snowdrifts,  but  was  lined  at  short  intervals 
with  "case  cantoniere"  or  help-stations,  one  of  which 
has  been  found  at  the  Cantine  de  Fontintes,  two  kilo- 
metres below  the  summit  on  the  Italian  side,  another  at 
Le  Fond  de  la  Combe  on  the  Swiss  side.  A  milestone 
marked  XXIV  is  still  extant  at  Bourg  St.  Pierre,  the 
mileage  being  reckoned  from  Aosta  to  Martigny,  where 
the  Alpine  road  fell  into  the  one  leading  from  Briga  to 
Viviscus  (Vevey).  On  nearing  the  summit  of  the  pass 
the  road  is  entirely  cut  out  of  the  live  rock,  with  a  mini- 

*  Carlo  Prorais,  Le  antichita  di  Aosta,  Turin,  1862;  de  Loges,  Essai 
historique  sur  le  Mont  St.  Bernard,  1789;  Auber,  La  vallee  d'Aoste,  Paris, 
1860;  Castelfranco,  Notizie  degli  scavi,  a.  1891,  p.  75;  von  Duhn,  Memorie 
Accad.  di  Torino,  a.  1891,  vol.  xli,  p.  386;  de  la  Blanchere,  Melanges  de 
VEcole  Francaise  deRome,  a.  1887,  vol.  vii,  p.  244;  de  Pauley,  Revue  archeol.y 
nouvelle  serie,  vol.  iii,  p.  454;  Desjardins,  Gaule  romaine,  vol.  i,  p.  70; 
Ferrero,  Notizie  degli  scavi,  1883-1904;  Corpus  Inscript.  Lat,  vol.  v,  p. 
761. 


32      WANDERINGS  IN   THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

mum  width  of  eleven  feet  six  inches.  The  Roman  hospice 
(Mansio  in  summo  Pcenino)  stood  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  south  of  the  present  one,  and  comprised  a  temple 
to  the  god  of  the  mountain,  a  hospice  for  travellers, 
stables  and  watering-troughs,  and  storehouses  for  fuel 
and  provisions. 

The  location  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Poeninus  (from 
the  Celtic  "pen  or  hen,  *' summit"),  facing  almost  due 
north,  answers   precisely   to   the   precept  of  Vitruvius 


The  gate  by  which  the  Pcenine  Pass  road  left  Aosta 


(iv,  5),  "  When  a  house  of  the  gods  is  raised  on  a  public 
road,  place  it  so  that  travellers  may  see  their  images  and 
pay  homage  to  them  in  going  by." 

The  mansio  or  hospice  was  likewise  built  of  stone, 
with  an  elaborate  system  of  hypocausts  and  flues  for 
the  distribution  of  heat  through  the  guest-rooms.    The 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  33 

roof,  made  of  tiles  from  the  limekilns  of  the  Val  d'  Aosta, 
had  projecting  eaves  in  the  old  Swiss  style. 

From  the  study  of  the  fifty  votive  brass  tablets,  of  the 
five  hundred  Gaulish  coins,  of  the  seven  hundred  Roman 
medals,  of  the  marks  and  stamps  of  votive  pottery  and 
utensils  discovered  in  the  excavations,  and  exhibited 
now  in  the  museum  of  the  worthy  followers  of  St.  Ber- 
nard de  Menthon,  archaeologists  have  been  led  to  adopt 
the  following  conclusions. 

The  pass  was  but  little  used  in  prehistoric  ages,  only 
a  few  objects  of  the  age  of  bronze  having  been  found  at 
Lyddes  in  the  Val  d'  Entremont,  and  none  on  the  sum- 
mit. The  great  mass  of  votive  offerings  must  be  assigned 
to  the  Gaulish  tribesmen  who  first  established  a  perma- 
nent line  of  communication  across  the  Alps  at  the  time 
when  Tarquinius  Priscus  was  king  of  Rome.  This 
primitive  path,  full  of  untold  perils,  was  transformed 
into  a  regular  post  road  soon  after  the  foundation  of 
Augusta  Prsetoria,  and  the  conquest  of  the  Val  d'  Aosta, 
inhabited  by  the  Salassi,  about  25  b.  c.  When  the  Roman 
roadmakers  first  emerged  on  the  "plan  de  Joux"  at  the 
top  of  the  pass,  they  found  it  already  sacred  to  the  awe- 
inspiring  god  of  the  mountain. 

A  pinnacle  of  rock,  emerging  from  the  border  of  a 
small  basin  of  drinkable  water,  had  been  roughly 
squared,  and  cut  into  steps,  on  which  the  weary  traveller 
would  lay  his  offering,  a  button,  or  an  agraffe  from  his 
coat,  a  bead  from  his  chaplet,  a  wristband,  a  ring,  a 
drinking  goblet,  or  a  coin  or  two.  Peddlers  and  workmen 
were  satisfied  with  the  production  of  half  a  coin;  and  we 
have  also  the  touching  instance  of  a  Helvetian  who  left, 
as  a  token  of  gratitude  for  a  safe  journey,  his  own  razor, 
of  a  make  peculiar  to  the  savages  dwelling  in  the  Rhine- 
land. 


34      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  fifty-odd  Roman  tablets  already  discovered  con- 
tain no  illustrious  names,  only  those  of  petty  officers  on 
their  way  to  join  the  frontier  legions,  of  clerks  following 
in  the  train  of  provincial  magistrates,  or  of  Swiss  or 
Italian  tradesmen.  A  tablet  found  in  1892  enables  us  to 
reconstruct  the  scene  of  a  Helvetian  slave-dealer  (Hel- 
vetius  mango)  answering  to  the  name  of  Carassounus 
(he  must  have  come  from  the  Jura,  where  such  a  name 
was  popular),  who,  before  attempting  the  perilous  jour- 
ney, promises  the  gods  an  acknowledgment  of  their 
help,  should  he  succeed  in  leading  his  slaves  safely 
across  the  snowy  barrier. 

As  regards  the  Montgenevre,  the  most  popular  trans- 
alpine route  in  classic  times,  a  comparison  between  the 
old  and  the  present  time-tables  proves  that  the  mail- 
coach  service  between  Italy  and  Gallia  Narbonensis,  via 
the  valleys  of  the  Dora  and  the  Durance,  was  practi- 
cally the  same,  and  divided  into  the  same  number  of 
relays :  — 

Turin Augusta  Taurinorum 

Avigliana Ocelum 

Susa Segusio 

Exilles .  Summitas  Italici  Clivi 

Oulx Ad  Martis 

Cesanne Gesoeonem 

Montgenevre Ad  Matronce  verticem 

Brian9on Brigantium 

Casse-Rom Roma 

Embrun .Ebrodunum 

But  if  the  road  was  the  same,  the  difficulties  of  the 
journey  for  ordinary  travellers  were  infinitely  greater, 
considering  that  the  use  of  the  official  mail  service  was  a 
privilege  granted  by  the  head  of  the  state  to  compara- 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN  S5 

lively  few.  In  this  respect  the  Roman  postal  organiza- 
tion did  not  differ  from  the  one  adopted  in  Persia, 
which  enabled  the  rulers  of  that  immense  kingdom  to 
hold  the  reins  of  government  well  in  hand.  Herodotus 
describes  the  royal  road  which  ran  from  Sardis,  on  the 
Lydian  coast,  to  Susa,  a  distance  of  765  miles.  It  was 
divided  into  111  sections  or  horse-runs  by  a  correspond- 
ing number  of  halting  places,  at  an  average  distance  of 
seven  miles  from  each  other.  There  were  guidebooks 
and  time-tables  for  the  convenience  of  travellers,  with  a 
description  of  the  king's  road  and  its  caravansaries,  one 
composed  by  Baeto,  another  by  Amyntas.  The  title  of 
these  ancient  Bradshaws  —  much  more  instructive  than 
the  Roman  Itineraria  —  was  ol  ^TaOfioC,  the  "  post-re- 
lays." A  traveller  proceeding  at  leisure  and  with  his  own 
means  of  locomotion,  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles  a  day, 
could  cover  the  distance  between  the  Mgesm  Sea  and  the 
capital  in  about  twenty-five  days;  but  the  king's  mes- 
sengers, relaying  one  another  at  stated  intervals,  would 
travel  four  times  as  fast,  and  bring  a  dispatch  from  the 
governor  of  Lydia  to  the  palace  in  six  or  seven  days. 

In  Rome,  also,  the  right  of  making  use  of  the  mail 
service  was  granted  personally  by  the  Emperor  and 
occasionally  by  the  consul,  by  the  prefect  of  the  Praeto- 
rians, or  by  the  governor  of  a  province.  The  warrants 
or  diplomata  for  this  purpose  were  drafted  in  the  imperial 
cabinet  by  an  officer  a  diplomatibus,  and  there  they  re- 
ceived the  Emperor's  own  seal  and  signature.  According 
to  Suetonius,  the  warrants  of  Augustus  bore  the  impres- 
sion of  a  sphinx.  The  tendency  of  his  successors  was  to 
restrict  the  privilege  to  as  few  persons  as  possible,  and 
each  provincial  governor  was  held  responsible  for  any 
partiality  shown  in  dispensing  this  favor.  At  all  events, 
the  permits  became  null  and  void  after  a  fixed  date,  or 


36      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

on  the  death  of  the  emperor  whose  seal  and  signature 
they  bore. 

The  same  rules  must  have  been  followed  in  connection 
with  the  maritime  post,  the  central  office  for  which  was 
at  the  harbor  of  Ostia.  The  mail  boats  employed  in 
this  service  (naves  vagce,  naves  tabellarice)  were  so  well 
shaped,  so  well  manned,  and  could  carry  so  much  can- 
vas,   that   imperial   messengers   and   dispatches   could 


Pont  St.  Martin,  one  of  the  Roman  bridges  in  the  Val  d'  Aosta 

reach  Alexandria  in  eleven  days,  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar 
in  seven,  the  Straits  of  Messina  in  five,  the  coast  of 
Spain  in  four,  the  coast  of  Provence  in  three,  the  coast 
of  Africa  in  two. 

Even  less  accessible  to  the  ordinary  public  were  the 
opportunities  of  corresponding  by  letter  or  by  telegraph. 
Here,  also,  we  find  the  transmission  of  mails  by  post  to  be 
an  imperial  privilege  granted  to  few,  while  private  per- 
sons were  obliged  to  trust  their  correspondence  to  their 
own  letter-carriers,  named  lahellarii,  or  to  wait  for  the 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN  37 

chance  of  a  friend  or  an  acquaintance  undertaking  a 
journey  in  the  direction  in  which  the  letter  was  to  be 
sent.  In  the  second  century  of  the  empire,  private  com- 
panies were  organized  for  the  transmission  of  letters 
along  the  great  trunk  roads.  I  suppose  that  the  officials 
of  the  cursus  publicus,  or  postmasters,  must  have  had  a 
share  in  the  business ;  and  considering  that  at  each  man- 
sio,  or  post-halt,  there  was  a  cab-stand  for  local  traffic 
on  the  branch  roads,  it  was  easy  for  the  letter  to  reach 
its  destination,  even  in  out-of-the-way  places,  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time. 

Telegraphing  seems  to  have  been  reserved  for  military 
purposes.  Such  a  simple,  obvious,  and  ready  means  of 
notifying  friends  that  danger  is  impending  or  that  relief 
is  coming  must  have  been  hit  upon  in  the  earliest  stages 
of  civilization  of  the  human  race;  but  the  first  written 
statement  occurs  in  the  magnificent  simile  of  the  Iliad 
(18,  203-214),  where  the  '*  bright  sheen  from  Achilles' 
head"  flashing  "up  to  the  upper  air"  is  compared  to 
**  beacon  fires  blazing  forth  from  a  beleaguered  island- 
home."  The  Jews  maintained  a  regular  line  of  signal 
stations  between  Jerusalem  and  Babylonia,  to  an- 
nounce the  appearance  of  the  new  moon,  as  described 
in  the  Talmud,^  until  the  Samaritans  lighted  counter 
mock-fires,  when  the  communication  had  to  be  sent  by 
messenger.  We  have  absolute  evidence  that  the  ancients 
could  telegraph  not  only  the  simplest  kind  of  intelli- 
gence by  a  prearranged  code,  but  words  and  sentences 
as  well.  For  instance,  while  the  Lacedaemonian  fleet  of 
fifty-three  men-of-war  was  lying  off  the  southern  end  of 
the  island  of  Corcyra  in  427  b.  c,  a  telegram  to  the  ad- 

*  Translated  by  Barclay  (1878),  p.  151.  I  have  derived  my  informa- 
tion from  Augustus  C.  Merriam's  excellent  paper,  Telegraphing  among  the 
AyicientSy  published  by  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  1879. 


38      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

miral  from  Cape  Leucas,  forty-five  miles  distant,  warned 
him  that  an  Athenian  fleet  of  sixty  triremes  was  sailing 
up  the  coast. 

The  best  telegraph  system,  invented  by  Cleoxenus 
and  Democlitus  and  perfected  by  the  historian  Polybius, 
spelled  out  the  words  one  by  one,  but  its  working  was  a 
little  complicated  and  its  sphere  of  action  restricted  to 
a  distance  of  ten  miles.  Operator  and  receiver,  in  this 
case,  were  each  provided  with  a  board  containing  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  in  five  lines,  — 


A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

K 

L 

M 

N 

O 

P 

Q 

R 

S 

T 

V 

X 

Y 

z 

and  with  a  dioptra  or  stenoscope,  to  distinguish  the  right 
and  the  left  of  the  operating  station.  One,  two,  five 
torches  raised  on  the  left,  a  light  flashed  or  a  flag  raised 
one,  two,  five  times  on  the  same  side,  indicated  the  num- 
ber of  the  line:  the  same  signs  shown  on  the  right  in- 
dicated the  number  of  the  letter  in  each  line.  Suppose 
the  w^ord  roma  was  to  be  telegraphed:  the  operator 
would  send  first  four  flashes  on  the  left,  two  on  the  right; 
then  three  on  the  left,  four  on  the  right,  and  so  forth. 

The  want  of  hotel  accommodation  made  it  almost  im- 
possible for  families  and  individuals  who  did  not  belong 
to  the  oflScial  world  to  travel  abroad.  They  could  avail 
themselves  only  of  ignoble  wayside  hostelries,  such  as 
the  one  described  by  Horace  ('*  Satires,"  i,  5),  where  he 
gives  an  account  of  his  journey  from  Rome  to  Brundu- 
sium.  Built  for  speculation,  very  likely  by  the  local 
postmasters,  they  were  either  let  to  a  landlord  or  man- 
aged by  slaves.    Where  the  traflfic  was  greatest,  for  in- 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  39 

stance  on  the  Appian  Way,  there  were  several  inns  in 
the  same  neighborhood.  Tres  Tabernse,  "the  Three 
Taverns,"  was  the  name  given  to  the  station  at  the 
thirty-second  milestone,  where  the  meeting  of  Paul  and 
the  converts  from  Rome  took  place  in  the  year  61,  as 
described  in  Acts  xxviii,  15.  The  next  one,  at  the  forty- 
first  milestone  (Forum  Appii),  is  described  by  Horace 
as  "differtum  cauponibus,"  swarming  with  hostelries, 
as  were  the  Tabernse  Csediciae  and  the  Caudi  Cauponae, 
farther  along  the  same  highroad.  The  sprightly  Vir- 
gilian  cojpa  (hostess)  shows  us  in  a  very  modern  fashion 
the  competition  between  rival  establishments,  and  the 
advertiser's  art  in  full  operation.  I  suppose  the  compe- 
tition must  have  been  started  by  pride  rather  than  by 
a  spirit  of  gain,  because  the  diversoria  were  extremely 
cheap.  Polybius  says  (ii,  15)  that  in  Cisalpine  Gaul 
there  were  no  items  in  the  bill,  but  a  single  charge  of 
half  an  as  (about  two  cents).  He  speaks,  of  course,  of 
the  late  Republican  period.  For  the  early  Empire  we 
have  a  standard  record  in  the  well-known  relief  of  Iser- 
nia,^  which  represents  a  hostess  reckoning  with  a  parting 
guest.  The  dialogue  between  them  is  given  verbatim, 
and  the  charges  are :  for  bread  and  a  pint  of  wine  one  as 
(four  cents),  for  meat  two  asses,  for  the  mule's  prov- 
ender two  asses,  and  eight  asses  for  another  item  for 
which  we  refer  the  curious  to  the  inscription  itself. 
They  were  noisy,  riotous  dens,  fit  only  for  the  lowest 
class  of  muleteers,  and  for  peddlers  and  laborers,  where 
scenes  of  altercation  and  blows  occurred  perhaps  as 
often  as  they  do  at  the  present  day  in  a  suburban  osteria. 
In  a  wine  shop  discovered  at  Pompeii  in  1877  there 
are  four  such  scenes  painted  on  a  band  of  plaster, 
above  the  podium  or  wainscoting  of  the  front  room. 

^  Mommsen,  Inscr.  NeapoL,  n.  5078. 


40      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA. 

The  first  on  the  left  represents  a  young  man  kissing  a 
woman,  outrageously  dressed  in  yellow  garments.  She 
says:  nolo!  cvm  mvrtal  ...  "I  don't  want  to  be 
kissed;  go  to  your  My r talis."  The  second  panel  repre- 
sents the  same  girl  talking  to  Myrtalis.  They  both  point 
their  fingers  at  a  third  female,  bringing  in  a  great  wine 
jar  and  a  glass  and  mumbling  the  words:  qvi  vvlt 
SVMAT  .  OCEANE  VENi  .  BiBE ! — an  invitation  to  bibu- 
lous customers.  The  third  scene  represents  two  gamblers 
seated,  with  a  board  on  their  knees,  on  which  several 
latrunculi  are  seen,  disposed  in  rows  of  different  colors, 
yellow,  black,  and  white.  One  is  just  throwing  the  dice, 
and  says:  exsi,  *'I  won."  The  other  answers,  pointing 
to  the  dice:  non  tria  .  dvas  est,  "You  score  two,  not 
three."  The  men  are  fighting  in  the  fourth  scene;  one 
says,  "I  did  not  throw  two,  but  three,  and  I  have  the 
game  ";  the  other  answers,  "  You  .  .  .!  I  have  won."  At 
this  moment  the  landlord  appears,  and,  pushing  both 
drunkards  into  the  street,  says,  iTis  foras  .  rixatis, 
*'Go  out  to  quarrel." 

Another  source  of  annoyance  and  even  of  personal 
danger  to  travellers  lay  in  the  unsettled  state  of  public 
security.  There  were  regular  associations  of  outlaws 
and  banditti  scouring  the  Campagna,  the  Ciminian  dis- 
trict, the  Pontine  marshes,  and  the  Maremma.  The 
crossing  of  the  forest  near  Cumse,  called  the  Silva  Gal- 
linaria,  and  of  the  Silva  Alsietina  on  the  Via  Cassia, 
was  considered  so  dangerous  that  private  travellers  were 
obliged  to  place  themselves  under  the  protection  of 
police  patrols,  or  of  the  escort  accompanying  govern- 
ment officials.  Even  the  short  journey  from  Rome  to 
Tibur  was  at  times  unsafe.  I  have  related  in  *'  Ancient 
Rome,"  p.  211,  how  a  brigand  chief,  Felix  Bulla  by 
name,  held  Central  Italy  at  ransom  for  two  years,  scour- 


THE  LAND   OF   SATURN 


41 


ing  it  from  sea  to  sea,  at  the  head  of  six  hundred  follow- 
ers, and  how  a  schoolmaster,  Julius  Timotheus,  having 
gone  for  a  walk  on  the  Via  Campana,  was  attacked  by 
highwaymen  and  murdered  with  seven  of  his  young 
pupils. 


No  wonder,  then,  that  the  majority  of  citizens  should 
have  felt  satisfied  with  the  possession  of  a  summer  place 
within  easy  distance  from  the  capital,  a  distance  which 
they  could  cover  in  an  amazingly  short  time,  by  reason 
of  the  swiftness  of  their  African  ponies,  the  lightness  of 
their  pony-carts  (birotce,  biroccini),  and  the  excellence 
of  the  suburban  roads.  We  must  remember  that  up 
to  the  time  of  Pius  IX  the  Roman  middle  classes  were 
satisfied  with  a  country  house  on  the  Monti  Parioli,  or 
on  the  Monte  Mario,  and  looked  with  envy  at  the  privi- 
leged ones  able  to  spend  the  summer  on  the  Tusculan 


A  hostelry  in  the  Roman  Campagna 


42     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

and  Tiburtine  hills  or  at  the  shore  of  Antium.  Had  not 
modern  means  of  travel  been  brought  into  play,  this 
time-honored  custom  would  probably  still  prevail. 
The  custom  dates  at  least  from  the  time  of  Plautus 
(about  200  B.  c),  who  ridicules  the  poor  parasites  con- 
demned to  live  for  four  months  of  the  year  upon  their 
wits,  on  account  of  the  absence  of  their  patrons. 

Statins  writes  to  Marcellus  at  the  approach  of  summer : 
*'The  city  is  already  deserted;  some  have  escaped  to 
Prseneste;  some  to  the  cool  forests  of  Diana,  others  to 
Algidum,  Tibur,  and  Tusculum.  Where  have  you  given 
yourself  a  change  from  city  life?"  This  question  put 
to  the  wealthy  Marcellus  must  be  understood  in  this 
sense:  "Which  of  your  many  country  seats  have  you 
chosen  to  give  you  shelter  for  the  time  being  ?"  because, 
as  a  rule,  patricians  and  financiers  could  ramble  from 
seacoast  to  mountains,  from  a  watering-place  to  a  shoot- 
ing-lodge, without  leaving  their  own  domains.  The  Quin- 
tilii,  for  instance,  owned  a  magnificent  estate  at  the  sixth 
milestone  of  the  Appian  Way  and  another  at  the  four- 
teenth milestone  of  the  road  to  Tusculum  (the  Villa 
Mondragone) ;  the  poet  Flavins  Claudianus  had  one  at 
Marino,  one  at  Ardea;  Lucullus,  one  in  the  plain,  one 
on  the  hills,  one  on  the  sea;  "le  prince  des  orateurs  .  .  . 
Ciceron  .  .  .  ayant  ete  eleve  aux  plus  hautes  dignites 
de  la  Republique,  batit,  ou  acquit,  un  si  grand  nombre 
de  maisons  de  Campagne,  qu'on  en  compte  jusqu'a  dix- 
neuf "  (Chaupy).  Centronius  had  no  rivals  for  extrava- 
gance as  a  builder  of  villas.  The  same  spirit  prevailed 
in  Rome  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance,  and  the  names 
of  Cardinals  Alessandro  Farnese,  Giovanni  Ricci  di 
Montepulciano,  and  Scipione  Borghese  will  be  con- 
nected forever  by  artists  and  histori-ans  with  the  crea- 
tion of  ** formal"  or   ** terrace"   gardens,    the   type  of 


THE   LAND   OF  SATURN  43 

which  is  happily  coming  back  into  favor.  When  Prince 
Marcantonio  Borghese  died  in  1886,  the  family  estate 
comprised  fifteen  or  twenty  villas,  of  which  three  were 
at  Frascati  and  three  between  Anzio  and  Nettuno. 

As  regards  the  estimation  in  which  the  various  dis- 
tricts of  the  Campagna  were  held,  the  territory  of  Tus- 
culum  from  Bovillae  (Le  Frattocchie)  to  Labicum  (La 
Colonna)  takes  the  place  of  honor.  It  is  the  most  con- 
gested section  of  Latium,  numbering  about  ten  villas  to 
the  square  mile.  Tibur  comes  in  the  second  place,  with 
its  magnificent  array  of  summer  residences  extending 
from  the  foot  of  the  Lucretilis  by  Marcellina  to  ^fulse 
and  Gericomio,  and  far  away  into  the  mountains 
towards  Varia  and  Saxula.  Prseneste  —  the  "sestivae 
Romanorum  deliciae"  of  Horace  —  shared  with  Tibur 
the  favor  of  the  fashionable  clientele,  because  the  for- 
ests which  clothed  its  hills  and  dales,  the  abundance  of 
springs  and  fountains,  and  its  location  on  the  watershed 
between  the  land  of  the  Volscians  and  the  land  of  the 
Latins  made  it  an  ideal  summer  residence,  especially 
after  Tiberius  happened  to  recover  from  a  mortal  illness 
while  residing  in  the  imperial  villa,  the  ruins  of  which 
are  still  to  oe  seen  near  the  suburban  church  of  the 
Madonna  dell'  Aquila. 

Augustus  "  was  equally  fond  of  sheltering  himself  from 
the  cares  of  state  and  from  official  life  in  the  Bay  of 
Naples  or  on  one  of  the  Campanian  islands.  Of  the 
country  seats  near  Rome  he  loved  the  best  Lanuvium, 
Prseneste,  and  Tibur,  to  which  places  he  would  be  car- 
ried in  a  lectica  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  and  so  gently 
that  sometimes  he  would  spend  two  nights  in  covering 
those  few  miles."  Horace  manifests  his  partiality  in  the 
following  order:  the  Sabine  mountain-farm,  the  frigid 
Prseneste,  the  easy-lying  Tibur,  the  sea-watered  Baise. 


44      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Some  of  these  classic  villa-centres  are  still  in  favor — 
Tusculum,  for  instance,  Antium,  and  Tibur.  Others, 
like  Pra^neste  and  Lanuvium,  have  lost  caste  and  gone 


A  glimpse  of  the  Lake  of  Bracciano 

out  of  fashion.  Others  still,  like  Albano  and  Genzano, 
have  risen  above  their  rather  humble  condition  in  old 
times ;  a  change  for  which  I  cannot  give  any  explanation 
except  that  the  slopes  of  Alba  were  set  apart  exclusively 
for  the  wine-growing  industry,  and  those  of  Cynthianum 


THE  LAND  OF  SATURN  45 

were  entirely  overgrown  with  forests  sacred 'to  Diana 
Nemorensis. 

The  Romans  did  not  care  for  lakes.  Only  one  villa  is 
to  be  found  on  the  shores  of  that  of  Bracciano,  on  the 
bold  promontory  of  San  Liberato,  from  which  such  a 
comprehensive  view  of  the  lake  is  obtained.  It  belonged 
to  a  Mettia  Hedonea,  and  it  teaches  us  the  fact  that  the 
ancients  had  the  habit  of  giving  names  to  their  coun- 
try residences,  just  as  we  do  now.  Mettia's  was  called 
"Pausilypon"  because  its  position  reminded  owner  and 
guests  of  the  celebrated  hill  between  Naples  and  Puteoli, 
from  which  a  similar  view  over  a  blue  sheet  of  water 
could  be  obtained.  It  may  also  have  received  that 
name  in  its  literal  sense  of  irava-iXvirov,  or  "softener  of 


sorrow." 


The  same  remarks  hold  good  for  the  great  lakes  of  the 
north,  Verbanus  (Maggiore),  Larius  (Como),  Benacus 
(Garda),  Sebinus  (Iseo),  etc.  The  Greco-Celtic  names 
of  so  many  villages  like  Nesso,  Lierna,  Brienno,  Dervio 
on  Lake  Larius,  and  Angera,  Ispra,  Suna,  Lesa,  Intra 
on  Lake  Verbanus,  prove  that  those  delightful  shores 
were  as  densely  inhabited  in  old  times  as  they  are  now; 
but  if  we  except  the  ruins  of  a  villa  at  Sermione  attrib- 
uted to  Catullus,  no  other  evidence  exists  to  show  that 
the  Romans  appreciated  as  it  deserved  the  northern 
lake  district.  In  fact,  they  knew  so  little  about  it  that 
Virgil  describes  the  Lake  of  Como  as  the  largest  (maxi- 
mus)  of  all,  and  omits  all  notice  of  the  real  Maggiore; 
and  the  Lake  of  Lugano  (Ceresius)  is  not  noticed  by 
any  writer  earlier  than  the  sixth  century  after  Christ. 

As  regards  height  above  the  sea-level,  the  ancients  did 
not  care  for  the  extremes  which  we  indulge  in,  in  these 
days  of  cable  railways,  the  altitude  of  their  summer 
places  ranging  only  between  one  and  two  thousand  feet. 


46      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  three  highest  Roman  villas  within  the  limit  of  the 
region  over  which  the  reader  and  I  are  wandering  at 
present  are  Trajan's  at  the  Arcinazzo  Pass,  between 
Subiaco  and  Guarcino  (2755  feet),  the  Anician  on  the 
Vulturella,  now  called  Santa  Sigola  (2772  feet),  and  a 
third,  probably  of  the  Antistian  family,  near  Rocca  di 
Papa  (2310  feet).  This  last  is  associated  with  my  first 
archaeological  excursion  in  the  Campagna,  made  many 
years  ago  with  the  late  Commendatore  de  Rossi,  to  take 
account  of  certain  finds  which  a  local  millionaire  pea- 
sant, Locatelli  by  name,  had  made  in  the  woodlands 
east  of  the  village. 

We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  the  field  of  sum- 
mer resort  was  absolutely  restricted  to  the  hills  of  Latium 
or  to  the  bays  and  islands  of  Campania.  Etruria  and 
the  Tuscan  archipelago  were  also  sought,  although  in  a 
minor  degree  on  account  of  the  dread  of  the  Maremma, 
the  obnoxious  effluvia  of  which,  borne  on  the  ponente  or 
sea-wind,  from  time  to  time  reached  even  the  inland 
hill  towns.  The  great  partiality  which  we  mid-Italians 
feel  for  the  Apennino  Pistoiese  and  its  glorious  summer 
resorts  was  undoubtedly  shared  by  the  ancients,  as  is 
shown  by  the  survival  of  so  many  classic  names,  such  as 
Gavinana  (Fundus  Gabinianus),  Cutigliano  (F.  Cutili- 
anus).  Pons  Petri,  Popilio,  Vico-Pancellorum,  etc. 

We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  patricians  were 
extensive  landowners,  in  Italy  as  well  as  in  northern 
Africa,  and  that  they  were  bound  to  visit  their  estates 
from  time  to  time  and  watch  over  the  doings  of  their 
stewards.  In  the  last  place,  we  have  proof  that  in  certain 
cases  the  choice  of  a  country  residence  was  determined 
by  a  love  of  sport.  Why  should  the  Domitian  family, 
for  instance,  have  purchased  the  two  lonely  islands 
of  Igilium  (Isola  del  Giglio)  and  Dianium  (Giannutri), 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN  47 

off  Cape  Argentario,  and  lavished  a  fortune  in  cover- 
ing acre  after  acre  with  buildings  of  great  splendor  ? 
Certainly  not  to  try  experiments  in  cultivation  upon 
those  barren  rocks,  as  the  brothers  Oswald  and  Walter 
Adami  of  Leghorn  have  done  in  our  own  time  with 
scanty  success.  The  Domitii  purchased  the  islands  for 
the  same  reason  that  has  induced  our  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  III  to  lease  Oglasa  (Monte  Cristo)  for  a 
number  of  years,  viz.,  sport.  The  rocky  pinnacles  with 
their  shrubbery  of  dwarf  pines,  myrtle,  laurel,  and 
arbutus  have  been  from  immemorial  times  —  probably 
since  the  first  wreck  of  a  Tyrian  or  Phoenician  vessel  — 
the  favorite  haunts  of  the  wild  goat.  And  where  King 
Victor  Emmanuel  owns  but  a  humble  cottage,  with  poor 
shelter  for  a  small  yacht,  the  Domitii  had  raised  an 
immense  palace,  the  description  of  which  as  given  by 
Onofrio  Boni,  Dempster,  Giulii,  and  Pellegrini  fills  us 
with  wonder  at  the  power  and  lavishness  of  a  Roman 
nobleman.  The  study  of  the  marks  impressed  on  the 
building  materials  excavated  in  1900  at  Giannutri 
proves,  among  other  chronological  and  historical  details, 
that  every  brick  and  tile  used  in  the  structure  (and 
there  must  have  been  hundreds  of  thousands)  was  im- 
ported by  sea  from  the  harbor  of  Rome ;  that  the  villa 
was  begun  under  the  Flavian  dynasty  and  completed 
about  the  time  of  Hadrian  (about  A.  d.  80-120);  that 
the  bricks  and  tiles  were  made  in  the  Domitian  kilns 
of  the  Vatican  district,  the  most  famous  and  extensive 
kilns  in  the  world.  The  island  seems  to  have  been 
abandoned  at  the  time  of  Constantine,  but,  like  its 
neighbor,  the  Isola  del  Giglio,  it  was  chosen  as  a  tem- 
porary harbor  of  refuge  by  many  Roman  refugees  at 
the  time  of  the  sack  of  Alaric  in  410,  as  described 
by  Rutilius  Numatianus  (i,  325).    The  Tuscan  fiefs  of 


48     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  Domitii,  comprising  the  two  islands,  the  Monte 
Argentario,  and  the  adjoining  Maremma  (Cosanum 
littus),  having  become  crown  property  in  the  middle 
ages,  were  given  by  Charlemagne  to  the  monks  of  the 
Trefontane  in  805,  together  with  Ansidonia,  Porto 
Ercole,  and  Orbetello ;  and  the  memory  of  this  donation 
has  been  preserved  to  the  present  day  in  the  geographical 
frescoes  painted  on  the  arched  entrance  to  that  ancient 
abbey. 

The  craze  for  a  thermal  cure  of  some  kind  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  Roman  people,  and  the  faith  which 
they  reposed  in  the  healing  powers  of  mineral  springs 
has  its  first  historical  exemplification  in  the  cure  of 
Volesus  the  Sabine  at  the  springs  of  Tarentum,  in  the 
Campus  Martins,  as  related  by  Valerius  Maximus. 
Near  every  mineral  source  of  the  Campagna,  of  Latium, 
of  Italy,  of  northwestern  Europe,  and  of  the  British 
Islands,  traces  have  been  discovered  of  the  dwelling  of 
former  generations,  and  of  their  worship  of  the  local 
deity  from  whom  the  medicinal  virtue  of  the  waters  was 
thought  to  emanate.  Where  now  gay  crowds  assemble 
to  be  treated  for  more  or  less  imaginary  ailments,  the 
prehistoric  man,  the  Roman  conqueror,  the  mediaeval 
knight  found  relief  in  ages  gone  by,  speedy  and  effica- 
cious in  proportion  to  the  depth  and  tenacity  of  their 
faith. 

The  oldest  thermal  establishment  in  Italy  known  to 
me  was  discovered  not  long  ago  near  Bertinoro,  on  the 
Via  ^Emilia,  a  town  still  known  for  its  magnesia  waters. 
When  the  first  Euganeans  settled  among  the  foothills  of 
the  Apennines  and  discovered  the  Bertinoro  springs, 
almost  level  with  the  marshy  valley  where  their  huts 
had  been  raised  on  palisades,  their  first  thought  was  to 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN 


49 


isolate  and  raise  them  to  a  higher  level,  so  as  to  make 
them  ready  for  use.  For  this  purpose  they  hollowed  out 
the  trunk  of  a  tree,  stood  it  upright,  and  forced  the  lower 
end  of  this  novel  tube  into  the  crack  in  the  rock  from 
which  the  water  issued,  thus  raising  its  level  by  twelve 
feet.  The  soil  around  this  rude  arrangement  has  been 
found  to  contain  many  hundred  votive  offerings,  mostly 
in  the  shape  of  clay  vessels  moulded  by  hand  and  baked 
in  an  open  fire.  The  same  system  seems  to  have  been 
followed  by  the  prehistoric  discoverers  of  the  waters  of 
St.  Moritz,  to  raise  their  level  above  the  swamps  of  the 
upper  end  of  the  lake,  where  the  Neues  Stahlbad  now 
stands.  They  first  built  an  outer  caisson  of  trunks  of 
fir  trees,  fastened  at 
the  joints  or  corners 
in  the  same  way  that 
the  Swiss  dwellers  in 
high  valleys  fasten  the 
timber  frames  of  their 
huts,  by  means  of 
mortises  and  wooden 
pegs.  It  was  proba- 
bly meant  as  a  pro- 
tection of  the  orifice 

of   the  spring    against  The  prehistoric  springs  at  St.  IVIoritz 

landslides,  or   ice  or 

snow.  The  inner  caisson  was  made  of  roughly  cut 
planks,  fastened  in  the  same  primitive  fashion,  as  the 
use  of  nails  was  not  known  to  the  Engadiners  of  that 
remote  period.  Then  to  make  the  two  wooden  tubes 
water-tight,  and  capable  of  carrying  the  level  of  the 
waters  to  the  prescribed  mark  above  that  of  the  swamp, 
the  intervening  space  was  filled  with  compressed  clay. 
This  singular  arrangement  dates  from  the  bronze  age. 


OUTER    CAISSON    OF  TREE   TRUNKS 
A     TRUNKS  OF  TREES,  HOLLOWED 


50      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROISIAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  Fons  Aponi  (Bagni  d'  Abano)  was  likewise  in 
favor  with  the  men  of  the  age  of  bronze  at  the  time 
when  the  Euganean  hills  rose  like  rocky  islands  out  of 
the  Venetian  lagoon.  Here,  also,  we  find  the  small  clay 
vessels,  together  with  other  more  elaborate  products  of 
that  age. 

I  have  already  described  in  "Ancient  Rome,"  p.  46, 
how  in  cleaning  the  well  of  the  Aquae  Apollinares  at 
Vicarello,  in  the  year  1852,  the  workmen  came  across  a 
layer  of  brass  and  silver  coins  of  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ,  underneath  which  lay  in  chronological  order  and 
at  ever-increasing  depth  strata  of  imperial  coins  and 
votive  silver  cups,  of  republican  silver  pennies,  of  ces 
grave  signatum,  —  the  earliest  kind  of  Roman  currency, 
—  and  lastly  of  shapeless  fragments  of  copper  (ces  rude) 
which  were  used  in  the  first  market  transactions,  about 
the  time  of  the  foundation  of  Rome.  Lowest  of  all  was 
a  layer  of  flint  implements,  arrowheads,  hatchets,  and 
knives  offered  to  the  sacred  spring  by  the  half-savage 
people  who  first  settled  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  of 
Bracciano  in  the  age  of  stone. 

Pliny  the  Naturalist  shows  a  preference  for  two 
groups  of  springs  those  fed  by  the  underground  fires 
of  the  Phlsegrean  fields  and  those  bubbling  out  of  the 
foothills  of  the  Pyrenees.  At  Baiae  ailing  humanity 
could  find  help  in  sulphur,  alum,  salt,  nitric,  bituminous, 
or  acid  waters;  also  in  hot  vapor  baths  of  such  power 
that  they  were  made  use  of  for  heating  and  cooking  pur- 
poses, especially  the  Aquse  Posidianae,  so  named  from 
Posidius,  a  freedman  of  Claudius,  who  had  first  made 
them  popular.  There  were  special  cures  for  eye  dis- 
eases at  Puteoli  and  Gabii,  for  women's  complaints  at 
Sinuessa,  for  gallstones  at  Stabia  and  Teanum,  for 
wounds  and  sores  at  the  Aquae  Albulae,  and  for  nerves  at 


THE   LAND   OF  SATURN  51 

Cutilise  in  Sabina.  There  were  also  excellent  antilithic 
springs  in  Syria  near  Mount  Taurus,  in  Phrygia  near 
the  river  Gallus,  and  in  Ethiopia  at  the  Red  Springs. 
One  point  we  must  bear  in  mind,  as  essential  in  the 
history  of  hydrotherapy:  mineral  springs  were  far  more 
powerful  and  efficient  in  Roman  times  than  they  are 
now.  The  decrease  in  power  can  be  measured  within 
given  limits  by  comparing  the  thin  modern  deposits 
with  the  ancient,  which  have  encrusted  or  altogether 
choked  pipes,  reservoirs,  and  even  bath-tubs. 

Inscriptions  discovered  in  watering-places  beyond  the 
Alps  prove  that  they  must  have  been  held  in  great 
favor  by  the  Roman  generals,  officers,  judges,  col- 
lectors, and  civil  service  men  who  happened  to  be 
stationed  in  transalpine  provinces;  also  by  the  local 
army  contractors,  tradesmen,  and  landowners,  to  whom 
contact  with  their  conquerors  had  opened  the  ways  of 
civilization.  At  all  events,  the  waters  of  Baden-Baden 
(Aquae  Aurelise)  and  Wiesbaden  (Pontes  Matthiaci) 
were  as  popular  in  the  German  territory  as  those  of 
Bath  (Aquae  Solis)  in  Great  Britain,  of  Bourbonne-les- 
Bains  (A.  Bormonis),  Dax  (A.  Tarbellicae) ,  Vichy 
(A.  Calidae),  Bagneres  de  Bigorre  (Vicus  Aquensis) 
in  Gaul,  of  Aix-les-Bains  (A.  Gratianae)  in  Savoy, 
and  of  Acqui  (A.  Statyellae)  in  northern  Italy.  These 
famous  spas  were  not  inferior  in  comfort  or  luxury  to 
their  modern  representatives ;  artistically  and  aestheti- 
cally they  were  vastly  superior. 

When  we  look  at  the  shabby  bath-house  of  the  Aquae 
Albulae  on  the  road  to  Tivoli,  representing  what  young 
Italy  has  been  able  to  accomplish  towards  the  resur- 
rection of  the  famous  springs,  and  compare  it  with  the 
thermae  built  by  Agrippa  half  a  mile  to  the  north  of 
the  present  station,  at  a  place  called  the  Bagni  della 


52     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Regina,  we  have  reason  indeed  to  deplore  our  lack  of 
means  and  taste.  Imagine  a  thermal  establishment 
surrounded  by  three  lakes  (of  the  Isole  Natanti,  the  Co- 
lonnelle,  and  San  Giovanni)  of  mysterious  depth  and  of 
turquoise  hue,  with  colonnades  of  verde  antico,  marble 
and  mosaic  floors,  basins  of  gilt  bronze  or  precious 
marble,  statues,  busts,  gardens,  fountains,  a  shrine  dedi- 
cated Albvlis  Sanctissimis,  another  to  Cybele,  the 
whole  group  surrounded  and  shaded  by  the  wood  sacred 
to  the  health-restoring  nymphs. 

The  transformation  of  the  classic  Campagna  into  the 
present  waste  began  with  the  first  barbarian  incursions. 
This  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  land  of  Saturn  is  too 
well  known  to  require  detailed  notice.  The  cutting  of 
the  aqueducts  and  the  abandonment  of  the  drainage  and 
road  system  were  among  the  chief  factors  in  this  change 
for  the  worse.  Malaria,  which  had  been  kept  at  bay  for 
five  centuries  by  sheer  determination  and  the  ingenuity 
of  Roman  farmers  and  villa-builders,  again  took  pos- 
session of  the  doomed  land,  and  the  few  survivors,  help- 
less in  their  desolation,  raised  their  hands  to  heaven,  as 
their  ancestors  had  done  in  the  early  days  of  Rome, 
and  built  a  chapel  to  "Our  Lady  of  the  Fever,"  which 
became  one  of  the  most  popular  in  Rome.  And  yet, 
notwithstanding  these  and  other  obvious  reasons  which 
can  be  brought  forward  to  explain  the  desolation  of  the 
land,  there  are  many  points  in  its  history  which  remain 
obscure.  Had  the  former  excavators  of  the  suburban 
villas  and  farms  been  able  or  willing  to  read  the  book 
of  the  past  with  an  eye  to  the  stratigraphy  of  ruins,  we 
should  now  have  plenty  of  material  and  ample  evidence 
at  hand  to  start  on  our  investigation  of  the  truth;  but 
they  had  only  one  aim,  to  gather  marketable  works  of  art 


OUR  LADY  OF  THE  FEVER,  IN  THE  CRYPTS  OF  ST.  PETER'S 


VHV 


OF 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  55 

and  objects  of  value,  with  no  consideration  whatever  for 
the  archa3ological  interest  of  the  search.  We  know  abso- 
lutely nothing  of  the  fate  of  the  Villa  Quintiliorum, 
of  that  of  "  Sette  Bassi,"  or  of  Hadrian's  Tiburtinum, 
although  every  inch  of  their  surface  has  been  explored 
during  the  last  four  hundred  years.  The  following  in- 
stance shows  what  can  be  gained  in  knowledge  of  past 
events  by  a  diligent  inspection  of  the  archaeological 
strata. 

The  villa  of  Q.  Voconius  Pollio,  on  the  road  to 
Marino,  at  a  place  called  II  Sassone,  was  excavated  at 
my  suggestion  by  the  last  of  Roman  dilettanti,  Luigi 
Boccanera,  in  the  spring  of  1884.  Former  excavators, 
overseers,  and  reporters  would  have  deemed  it  sufficient 
to  record  the  finding  of  eighteen  statues  and  busts,  of 
innumerable  columns  and  capitals,  friezes,  mosaic  floors, 
inscriptions,  altars,  lamps,  coins,  etc.  To  us,  the  way 
these  objects  were  lying,  the  quality  of  the  rubbish  in 
which  they  were  imbedded,  the  dates  and  names  in- 
scribed on  bricks,  tiles,  and  water  pipes,  and  the  chro- 
nology of  coins  told  the  following  tale. 

The  villa,  originally  of  modest  size  and  sober  decora- 
tion, had  been  built  or  purchased  by  a  member  of  the 
Voconian  family  in  the  Augustan  age.  It  was  rebuilt 
and  doubled  in  extent,  in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  by 
Q.  Voconius  Pollio,  who  was  a  man  of  great  consid- 
eration and  an  extensive  landowner  in  Calabria,  and 
had  probably  made  his  fortune  in  Egypt,  where  he  had 
become  a  worshipper  of  Isis.  In  the  time  of  Severus 
Alexander  the  villa  was  purchased  or  inherited  by  a 
Prifernius  Pseto,  after  a  disaster  of  some  kind,  earth- 
quake or  waterspout  or  fire,  by  which  all  the  statuary 
had  suffered  considerable  damage.  After  the  first  raid 
of  the  barbarians  in  410,  local  peasants  took  possession 


56     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

of  the  villa,  as  res  nullius,  and  managed  to  live  in  the 
deserted  halls  by  filling  up  their  openings,  windows  and 
doors,  with  mud  walls.  One  of  these  halls,  of  basilical 
type,  was  then  turned  into  a  chapel,  and  the  necessity 
of  preventing  the  apse  of  this  chapel  from  falling  hav- 
ing arisen,  the  supporting  buttresses  were  entirely  built 
with  pieces  of  statuary  imbedded  in  cement;  among 
them  were  a  Victory,  a  Silenus,  a  Faun,  a  Silvanus,  a 
Cupid,  an  Eagle,  five  marble  candelabra,  and  a  great 
number  of  marble  heads,  arms,  and  legs.  Before  the 
collapse  of  the  roof  a  wanderer,  probably  a  Jewish 
hawker,  collected  in  one  of  the  rooms  all  the  plate  glass 
from  windows  and  skylights,  some  of  the  sheets  being 
still  framed  in  grooves  of  gilt  metal.  Evidently  the  roof 
was  the  first  to  collapse,  not  in  consequence  of  fire  or 
accident  of  any  kind,  but  out  of  sheer  decrepitude  of  the 
trusses;  and  at  that  late  period  (the  fifth  century  after 
Christ)  some  of  the  statues  were  still  standing  on  their 
pedestals,  an  Apollo,  a  Hercules,  and  a  heroic  figure  in 
the  reception  room,  a  Paris  in  the  dining  hall,  a  Marsyas 
in  the  northern  garden,  etc.  When  these  statues  fell, 
there  were  already  three  feet  of  rubbish  collected  on  the 
marble  or  mosaic  floors.  The  telltale  strata  of  this  rub- 
bish not  having  been  disturbed  by  previous  excavators, 
from  the  day  the  roof  had  caved  in  to  the  spring  of 
1884,  we  were  able  to  gather  from  their  study  all  these 
interesting  details. 

One  of  the  most  irritating  problems  in  this  subject  of 
the  extinction  of  life  in  the  Campagna  is  that  concern- 
ing the  fate  of  Ostia,  a  city  of  fifty  thousand  inhabitants, 
a  city  of  wealthy  merchants  in  whose  hands  the  trade 
of  the  Mediterranean  was  concentrated.  Ostia  did  not 
die  a  sudden  death,  like  the  Vesuvian  cities;  it  was  not 
taken  by  storm  and  destroyed  at  one  stroke  by  barbarian 


THE  CITHARCEDE  APOLLO  FOUND  IN  THE  VILLA  OF  VOCONIUS 

POLLIO 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  59 

hosts,  like  Concordia  Sagittaria ;  it  was  not  buried  under 
its  own  pall  of  ruins  and  never  disturbed  in  its  rest; 
Ostia  died  a  lingering  death,  by  starvation,  inanition, 
consumption,  decrepitude,  pillaged  at  leisure  by  foreign 
and  domestic  marauders,  open  to  all  treasure-seekers, 
and  only  exposed  to  such  ravages  of  nature  as  came  from 
the  periodical  floods  of  the  Tiber  and  from  the  growth 
of  shrubs  and  trees  over  its  mounds.  Such  being  the 
case,  we  ought  to  have  found  Ostia  a  city  of  bare  walls, 
stripped  of  every  movable  fixture,  not  to  speak  of  works 
of  art  and  objects  of  value.  Nothing  of  the  kind  has  hap- 
pened. Some  of  its  houses  and  public  buildings  look 
as  if  they  had  been  deserted  by  their  inhabitants  and 
custodians  only  yesterday,  and  their  works  of  art  left 
intact.  In  the  excavations  of  1858  led  by  Visconti,  a 
house  was  discovered  in  the  "Strada  delle  Pistrine,"  ^  in 
the  lararium  of  which  some  fifty  bronze  and  silver  stat- 
uettes of  domestic  gods  were  lying  partly  on  the  steps 
of  the  altar,  partly  on  the  floor.  In  1856  gold  rings, 
cameos,  and  other  objects  of  value  were  found  in  the 
columbaria  lining  the  Via  Severiana.  My  first  experi- 
ence in  treasure-trove  at  Ostia  dates  from  May  14, 1867. 
I  was  then  learning  from  my  friend  Visconti  —  the  last 
representative  of  a  noble  dynasty  of  archaeologists  —  the 
gentle  art  of  excavating,  and  I  happened  to  be  present 
when  the  overseer  brought  the  tidings  that  a  great  find 
was  imminent.  He  had  seen  a  bronze  hand  and  a  marble 
head  brought  to  light  in  the  "sacred  field  of  Cybele." 
We  rushed  to  the  spot  in  time  to  witness  the  resur- 
rection of  the  (bronze)  Venus  Clotho  and  the  (marble) 
Atys,  of  which  two  masterpieces  I  have  given  a  repro- 
duction in  "  New  Tales,"  pp.  189  and  191.  These  and 
other  finds  of  valuables  in  open  spaces,  like  the  sacred 

*  The  Street  of  Bakeries. 


60      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

field  of  Cybele,  the  Strada  delle  Pistrine,  and  the  Via 
Severiana,  have  never  been  satisfactorily  accounted  for. 

Another  reason  for  the  present  denudation  of  the  Cam- 
pagna  —  where  one  can  travel  for  miles  on  the  roads  to 
Prseneste,  Labicum,  and  Tusculum  without  coming  on 
a  single  tree  —  is  to  be  found  in  the  very  love  which  the 
Roman  peasants  felt  and  in  the  worship  they  professed 
towards  their  sacred  woods  and  towards  the  clusters  of 
trees  which  overshadowed  the  country  shrines  at  the 
crossroads.  They  knew  that  their  agricultural  prosper- 
ity was  so  dependent  on  the  protection  of  the  Latin 
groves  that,  to  save  them  from  the  greed  of  unscrupu- 
lous speculators,  with  whose  doings  Juvenal's  "  Satires  " 
have  made  us  acquainted,  they  had  placed  them  under 
the  protection  of  the  sylvan  gods.  On  local  anniversary 
gatherings  at  crossroads  shrines  these  simple  tillers  of 
the  soil  would  deck  oaks  and  pines  with  gay-colored 
ribbons,  and  hang  lamps  upon  their  boughs,  and  pour 
libations  over  their  roots.  One  who  attempts  in  our 
days  to  cross  the  wilderness  of  Fiorano  on  the  Appian 
Way,  or  of  Capobianco  on  the  Nomentana,  finds  it  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  in  ages  gone  by  these  very  solitudes 
could  have  resounded  with  the  joyful  mirth  of  the  pea- 
santry; and  yet  of  those  meetings,  festivities,  and  games 
we  possess  records  engraved  on  stone  discovered  in  both 
places.  Principal  among  these  records  are  the  Meno- 
logia  Rustica  or  farmers'  calendars,  of  which  we  have 
two  editions,  one  called  Colotiana  because  it  was  first 
seen  about  1550  in  the  garden  of  Giovanni  Colocci,  the 
other  Vallensis  because  one  of  the  Delia  Valle  collectors 
of  antiques  had  found  the  stone  (used  as  an  altar  in  a 
church  near  the  mausoleum  of  Augustus).  The  first  cal- 
endar is  divided  into  four  columns,  each  containing  three 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  61 

months,  the  other  into  three  columns  of  four  months 
each.    1  choose  the  month  of  May  as  an  example:  — 

Name  of  month  ....  May 

Number  of  days  ....  xxxi 

Date  of  Nonse the  seventh 

Length  of  days fourteen  and  a  half  hours 

Length  of  nights  .  .  .  nine  and  a  half  hours 

Sign  of  Zodiac the  Bull 

Protecting  god Apollo 

Farming  operations .  weeding  the  wheat  fields 

shearing 

washing  the  wool 
taming  of  heifers 
hay  harvesting 
lustration  of  the  fields 

Special  feasts  in  honor  of  Mercury  and  Flora 

If  we  consider  the  tenacity  of  country  folk  in  cherish- 
ing traditional  practices,  especially  if  connected  with 
material  interests,  we  cannot  wonder  at  the  fact  that 
tree-worship  should  have  long  survived  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  land.  When  the  church  became  omnipotent, 
and  the  Campagna  for  the  greater  part  church  property, 
its  line  of  conduct  seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  the 
fiery  words  of  Deuteronomy  xii,  3,  "And  ye  shall  over- 
throw their  altars,  and  break  their  pillars,  and  hum 
their  groves  with  fire, '^  words  which  occur  also  in  vii,  5. 
These  were  echoed  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  by 
Prudentius,  Paulinus  of  Nola,  and  Augustine.  In  the 
Theodosian  code,  tree-worship  is  considered  almost  as 
a  crime  of  state.  A  country  priest  guilty  of  leniency 
towards  the  offenders  was  punished  with  forty  days' 
fasting  on  bread  and  water.^    The  first  thought  of  St. 

^  Migne,  Patrol.  Lot.,  Ivi,  891. 


62      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Benedict  in  taking  possession  of  Monte  Cassino  was 
the  burning  of  the  forests  once  sacred  to  Apollo;  and 
Prudentius  does  not  hesitate  to  call  the  tools  of  destruc- 
tion used  by  the  Christians  the  ''avenging  axes,"  — 

Arbor  cadit  ultrici  succisa  bipenni  ! 

Tree-worship,  however,  had  taken  such  root  in  the 
Campagna  and  in  its  surrounding  districts  that  the 
church  was  compelled  to  try  other  methods  than  brute 
force  to  put  an  end  to  the  time-honored  superstition. 
These  were  the  substitution  of  St.  Silvanus  or  St.  Sylves- 
ter for  the  pagan  sylvan  gods  (Silvanus,  Apollo,  Diana) ; 
the  multiplication  of  churches  bearing  their  names,  on 
the  tops  of  forest-clad  mountains  where  pagan  temples 
had  stood ;  and  the  substitution  of  shrines  sacred  to  the 
Virgin  Mary  for  the  old  altars  at  the  crossings  of  the 
country  lanes. 

Traces  of  this  evolution  still  abound  in  the  Campagna, 
and  the  name  icona  or  iconetta,  still  given  to  country 
shrines  by  the  peasants  of  Monticelli,  Tivoli,  Subiaco, 
and  Nettuno,  proves  that  it  must  have  been  accom- 
plished in  the  sixth  century,  when  Byzantine  Greek  had 
becorne  the  language  mostly  in  favor  with  churchmen. 
If  my  reader  will  refer  to  the  map  of  Rome  published  by 
Bufalini  in  1551,  which  contains  also  a  strip  of  the  land 
outside  the  walls,  he  will  be  surprised  at  the  great  num- 
ber of  these  suburban  chapels,  of  which  some  were  left 
standing  in  the  days  of  my  youth.  Those  that  are  to  be 
seen  in  the  Campagna  have,  alas,  so  little  connection 
with  trees,  shade,  and  rest  that  when  I  touched  the  same 
subject  in  "  New  Tales,"  p.  114, 1  was  obliged  to  borrow 
my  illustration  of  an  iconetta  from  a  land  from  which 
trees  have  not  been  banished  —  the  Riviera  by  Santa 
Margherita.    The  one  here  reproduced  is  to  be  seen  on 


A  WAYSIDE  SHRINE  (ICONETTA)  NEAR  SUBIACO 


OFTH 


^WIVERS/TV   I 

V  OF  '    JJ 


THE   LAND   OF  SATURN  65 

the  lane  to  the  Sacro  Speco,  above  Subiaco.  Churches  of 
St.  Sylvester  yet  crown  the  tops  of  Soracte,  Vulturella, 
Artemisio,  and  Monte  Compatri;  the  same  saint  is  in- 
voked to-day  by  Sicilian  shepherds,  to  drive  away  wolves, 
just  as  the  early  settlers  on  the  Palatine  used  to  invoke 
Faun  the  Lupercus  for  the  same  reason.  The  peasants 
of  Lastra  a  Signa  near  Florence  hold  in  veneration  an 
oak,  believed  to  have  grown  out  of  the  staff  of  the 
blessed  Johanna,  just  as  the  cornelian  tree  near  the  steps 
of  Cacius  on  the  Palatine  was  considered  to  have  grown 
out  of  the  spear  of  Romulus. 

The  great  number  of  shrines  dedicated  to  the  Madonna 
of  the  Oak,  Madonna  of  the  Laurel,  Madonna  of  the 
Pine,  which  are  to  be  foun  L  in  Rome  itself  and  in  central 
Italy,  are  actual  witnesses  to  the  early  Christianization  of 
the  land.^ 

Another  characteristic  of  the  land,  which  cannot  fail  to 
impress  the  wayfarer,  is  the  great  number  of  towers  and 
fortified  farmhouses,  witnesses  of  an  age  of  unrest  and 
insecurity  in  which  the  holding  of  property  in  the  Cam- 
pagna  depended  more  on  brute  force  than  on  hereditary 
rights.  Twenty-one  farms  are  still  named  castelli,  or 
castellacci,  or  castiglioni,  from  their  battlemented  walls, 
and  forty-one  are  named  torri;  the  most  perfect  speci- 
mens of  the  first  class  being  the  Castelli  dei  Caetani  and 
dei  Savelli  on  the  Appian  Way,  the  CastelF  Arcione  on 
the  road  to  Tivoli,  the  Borghetto  on  the  Via  Latina,  and 
the  Castel  di  Leva  on  the  Via  Satricana.  Some  of  the 
towers  still  reach  a  great  height,  like  the  Torre  Fiscale 
(a  reproduction  of  which  is  given  in  "Ancient  Rome," 

*  On  the  evolution  of  tree-worship,  and  on  the  fate  of  the  sacred  woods 
in  Rome  and  the  Campagna,  consult  Stara-Tedde,  "Ricerche  sulla  Evolu- 
zione  del  culto  degli  alberi,"  in  Bull.  Arch.  Comunale,  a.  1907,  fasc.  i-iii. 


m     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

p.  277)  and  the  Torre  Castellaccia  west  of  the  lake  of 
Turnus ;  others,  like  the  Torre  Sapicuza  and  the  Torrac- 
cio  near  Morena,  are  still  surrounded  by  outer  fortified 
inclosures.  The  most  picturesque  in  my  opinion  is  the 
Torre  Tre  Teste,  on  the  road  to  Prseneste,  a  favorite 
meeting-place  for  the  foxhounds  in  the  winter  season. 

These  castellacci  and  torri  bring  to  our  recollection 
another  point  of  interest  in  the  history  of  the  Campagna, 
the  attempt  made  by  certain  popes  to  restore  it  to  life 
and  prosperity  after  the  retreat  of  the  last  plunderers,  the 
Langobards  of  Aistulph,  in  755,  and  the  Saracens  from 
Africa  in  846.  Their  plan  was  to  create  a  ring  of  fortified 
villages  at  an  average  distance  of  twelve  miles  from  the 
walls  of  the  city,  which,  while  forming  an  intrenched 
camp  around  it,  would  answer  at  the  same  time  as  so 
many  centres  of  colonization.  These  centres  were  called 
domus  cultGB,  and  for  a  certain  number  of  years  an- 
swered their  purpose  well  enough.  When,  after  the  in- 
road of  the  Saracens  in  846,  Pope  Leo  IV  determined  to 
fortify  the  Vatican  district  —  the  Leonine  city  or  burgh 
of  to-day  —  the  colonists  of  the  domus  cultce  were  called 
upon  to  take  a  share  in  the  work.  Two  inscriptions  now 
affixed  to  the  arch  which  spans  the  Via  Angelica  com- 
memorate the  event.  One  says,  "In  the  time  of  our 
Lord  the  Pope  Leo  IV  the  Militia  Saltisina  [a  colony  on 
the  road  to  Ardea,  fifteen  miles  from  the  gate]  built  these 
two  towers  and  the  wall  between  them";  the  other,  "In 
the  time  of  our  Lord  the  Pope  Leo  IV  the  Militia  Ca- 
pracorum  [a  colony  founded  by  Hadrian  I  near  the  ruins 
of  Veii,  on  the  site  of  the  present  farm  of  Santa  Cornelia] 
built  this  tower  and  the  wall  which  connects  it  with  the 
next."  Both  Saltisinum  and  Capracorum  must  have 
been  populous  and  prosperous  colonies,  and  yet  no  trace 
of  them  has  survived  the  ravages  of  time. 


THE  LAND   OF  SATURN 


67 


The  flora  of  the  Campagna  is  not  rich  nor  varied,  but 
many  districts  claim  a  specialty  of  their  own.  Violets  are 
particularly  abundant  in  Hadrian's  villa  and  in  the 
woodlands  of  Veii  and  Collatia ;  blue  and  purple  anem- 
ones in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Aquse  Albulse;  jonquils 
on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  road  to  Ostia  near  the 
farmhouse  of  Torre  di  Valle;  cyclamens  in  the  territory 
of  Alba;  and  narcissi  of  great  fragrance  in  the  Campi 
d' Annibale,  above  Rocca  di  Papa.    Primroses  flourish  in 


One  of  the  watch-towers  of  the  Caetani  on  the  Appian  Way 

only  two  places, — near  the  Ponte  Lupo  above  Gallicano 
and  at  a  certain  bend  of  the  valley  of  the  Cremera. 
These  beds,  the  existence  of  which  was  formerly  known 
to  few,  have  been,  alas,  found  out  by  the  vagabond 
flower  sellers  of  Rome,  in  whose  path  follow  destruction 
and  annihilation.  Forests  also  offer  certain  specialties; 
and,  as  in  ancient  Rome  the  Aventine  was  known  for 


68      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

its  laurel  trees,  the  Cselian  for  its  dwarf  oaks,  the  Oppian 
for  its  beeches,  so  the  Alban  hills  were  (and  are  at 
present)  known  for  their  groves  of  w^ild  chestnuts  and 
hazel  trees,  the  Maremma  for  its  pines,  the  Valle  delF 
Inferno  and  the  uplands  of  the  Via  Clodia  for  their  cork- 
oaks,  and  the  Sabine  hills  for  their  beeches.  The  most 
exquisite  districts  of  the  Campagna,  from  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  point  of  appreciation,  where  magnificent  oaks 
and  elms,  fresh  green  meadows,  luxuriant  cattle,  running 
brooks,  and  a  variety  of  wild  flowers  unite  to  give  the 
landscape  a  parklike  aspect,  are  the  valley  of  the  Arrone 
near  Boccea  and  the  valley  of  the  Rivus  Albanus  near 
Decimo.^ 

When  Alessandro  Sebastiani,  the  author  of  the 
"  Viaggio  a  Tivoli,"  crossed  the  Monte  Gennaro  by  the 
Vena-scritta  and  the  Scarpellata,  in  the  summer  of  1825, 
he  was  able  to  make  up  a  list  of  ninety-nine  varieties  of 
plants  growing  there,  among  which  were  Atropa  bella- 
donna, Digitalis  lutea,  Gentiana  cruciata,  Polygala,  Ve- 
ratrum,  and  Mercurialis.  The  same  specialist  in  his 
"  Florae  Romanse  Prodromus"  enumerates  two  hundred 
and  sixty  plants  growing  in  the  joints  of  the  stones  of 
the  Coliseum. 

The  fauna,  I  am  sorry  to  confess,  can  be  studied  only 
in  the  zoological  museum  connected  with  the  University 
of  Rome.  The  ludicrous  criminal  clemency  of  Italian 
game  laws,  the  negligence  of  the  authorities  in  exacting 

*  Decimo  stands,  as  its  name  implies,  at  the  tenth  milestone  of  the  road 
to  Lavinium  (Pratica  di  mare),  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  the  gate  of  King 
Victor  Emmanuel's  shooting  farm  of  Castel  Porziano.  Boccea  can  be 
reached  in  an  hour  by  motor,  leaving  by  the  Porta  Cavallegeri  and  follow- 
ing first  the  Aurelia  Nova  for  two  miles,  and  then  the  Cornelia  (Strada  di 
Boccea)  for  ten.  Boccea  (fundus  Buxeti,  Buxetum)  has  been  lately  made 
known  by  Signor  Leopoldo  Silli,  the  author  of  Boccea  e  le  sue  memorie, 
published  in  1907. 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  71 


Valley  of  the  Rivus  Albanus  near  Decimo.   (From  a  photograph  by  A.  Vochieri) 

obedience  even  to  them,  the  cheapness  of  a  shooting 
license,  which  can  be  purchased  by  the  poorest  peasants, 
have  destroyed  animal  life  in  the  Campagna,  except  in 
the  royal  preserves  of  Castel  Porziano.  Nothing  is  left 
to  shoot  but  birds  of  passage  at  given  seasons  of  the 
year,  and  even  then  it  is  a  matter  of  carnage  and  de- 
struction, not  of  sport.  The  only  breed  of  animals 
which  seems  to  be  flourishing  and  which  constitutes  the 
only  real  danger  the  explorer  has  to  face  nowadays  are 
the  shepherd's  dogs.  The  church  of  the  Divino  Amore 
at  Castel  di  Leva,  on  the  Via  Satricana,  bears  testimony 
to  this  state  of  things.  It  appears  that  in  the  year  1740 
a  missionary  priest,  having  lost  his  way  in  that  neigh- 
borhood, spied  the  roof  of  a  house  when  he  was  almost 
spent  in  body  and  mind.  At  the  same  time  a  number  of 
the  farm  dogs  sprang  upon  him,  tearing  his  coat  to 
pieces  while  he  was  appealing  in  his  distress  to  a  figure 


72      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

of  the  Virgin  Mary  painted  on  a  wall  close  by.  Help 
came  at  last  from  the  farm,  and  the  present  church  was 
erected  as  a  memorial  of  the  missioner's  miraculous 
escape.  If  other  wayfarers  who  had  similar  experiences 
had  followed  this  priest's  example,  the  Campagna  would 
contain  more  churches  and  shrines  than  Rome  itself. 

As  a  conclusion  to  this  opening  chapter  I  beg  to  be 
allowed  to  quote  the  following  words  from  Sir  Archibald 
Geikie's  article  in  the  '* Monthly  Review"  of  1904: » 
"The  Campagna  possesses  a  singular  fascination,  which 
has  been  often  and  enthusiastically  described.  The  end- 
less and  exquisite  variety  of  form  and  color  presented 
by  the  plain  and  its  boundary  of  distant  mountains, 
together  with  the  changing  effects  of  weather  and  season 
on  such  a  groundwork,  would  of  themselves  furnish 
ample  subjects  for  admiration.  But  the  influence  of  this 
natural  beauty  is  vastly  enhanced  by  the  strange  and 
solemn  loneliness  of  a  scene  which  living  man  seems  to 
have  almost  utterly  forsaken,  leaving  behind  him  only 
memories  of  a  storied  past,  which  are  awakened  at 
every  turn  by  roofless  walls,  mouldering  ruins  of  mediae- 
val towers,  fragments  of  imperial  aqueducts,  decayed 
substructures  of  ancient  villas,  and  the  grass-grown 
cities  whose  names  are  forever  linked  with  the  early 
struggles  of  Rome.  European  travel  offers  few  more 
instructive  experiences  than  may  be  gained  by  wandering 
at  will  over  that  rolling  sward,  carpeted  with  spring 
flowers,  but  silent  save  for  the  song  of  the  lark  overhead 
and  the  rustle  of  the  breeze  among  the  weeds  below : 
where  the  mountainous  walls  of  the  Sabine  chain  from 
Soracte  round  to  the  Alban  hills  gleam  under  the  soft 
Italian  sky  with  the  iridescence  of  an  opal,  and  where 
the  imagination,  attuned  to  the  human  association  of 

*  Page  292. 


THE   LAND   OF   SATURN  73 

the  landscape,  recalls  with  eager  interest  some  of  the 
incidents  in  the  marvellous  succession  of  historical 
events  that  have  been  transacted  here.  If,  besides  being 
keenly  alive  to  all  the  ordinary  sources  of  attraction,  the 
visitor  can  look  below  the  surface,  he  may  gain  a  vast 
increase  to  his  interest  in  the  ground  by  finding  there 
intelligible  memorials  of  prehistoric  scenes,  and  learning 
from  them  by  what  slow  steps  the  platform  was  framed 
on  which  Rome  rose  and  flourished  and  fell." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    LAND    OF   HORACE 

TIBUR,  in  the  opinion  of  Horace,  was  the  most 
attractive  spot  on  earth.  **  Please  the  Gods,"  he 
says,  *'that  Tibur,  this  ancient  seat  of  the  Ar- 
gseans,  may  become  the  shelter  of  my  old  age.  when, 
exhausted  by  travels  over  land  and  sea  and  by  the 
labors  of  war,  I  shall  seek  a  place  of  rest."  And  again 
he  asks  his  friend  Fuscus  Aristius,  *'Do  you  know  a 
happier  and  more  beautiful  place  than  Tibur,  where 
the  winters  are  mild,  and  where  the  zephyrs  moderate 
the  warmth  of  summer  days  .?"  ''Nine  times  he  men- 
tions it,  nearly  always  with  a  caressing  epithet.  It  is 
green  Tibur,  dew-fed  Tibur,  Tibur  never  arid,  leisurely 
Tibur,  breezy  Tibur,  Tibur  sloping  to  the  sun.  He  bids 
his  friend  Varus  plant  vines  in  the  moist  soil  of  his  own 
patrimony  there ;  prays  that  when  the  sands  of  his  life 
run  slow  he  may  end  there  his  days,  where  the  headlong 
Anio  leaps  over  the  brim  of  the  precipice,  where  the 
olive  groves  cast  their  shade,  where  the  orchards  are 
saturated  with  shifting  streams."  The  Rev.  Dr.  W. 
Tuck  well,  from  whose  "  Horace  "  ^  I  have  borrowed 
these  lines,  quotes  in  his  turn  the  following  verses  from 
a  poem  written,  says  tradition,  in  one  night  by  R.  C. 
Sewell  of  Magdalen  College,  for  the  Newdigate  prize  of 
1825:  — 

^  Horace,   by  Rev.  W.  Tuckwell,  M.  A.,  in  Bell's  Miniature  Series, 
London,  1905. 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  75 

**The  dark  pine  waves  on  Tibur's  classic  steep; 
From  rock  to  rock  the  headlong  waters  leap, 
Tossing  their  foam  on  high,  till  leaf  and  flower 
Glitter  like  emeralds  in  the  sparkling  shower. 
Lovely  —  but  lovelier  from  the  charms  that  glow 
Where  Latium  spreads  her  purple  vales  below; 
The  olive,  smiling  on  the  sunny  hill. 
The  golden  orchard  and  the  ductile  rill. 
The  spring  clear-bubbling  in  its  rocky  fount, 
The  moss-grown  cave,  the  Naiad's  fabled  haunt. 
And,  far  as  eye  can  strain,  yon  shadowy  dome. 
The  glory  of  the  earth,  eternal  Rome." 

To  these  noble  lines,  written  by  one  who  had  never 
seen  Tivoli,  I  must  add  a  quotation  from  another  poet, 
Delille,  who,  having  seen  it  at  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century,  addresses  the  following  words  to  the  river,  over 
whose  falls  oscillates  the  rainbow,  the  mystic  sign  of 
peace,  the  symbol  of  the  restfulness  of  the  old  Argsean 
colony :  — 

**0  Fleuve  ... 
Toi  dont  le  nom  chante  par  un  humble  affranchi 
Vient  braver,  grace  a  lui,  le  temps  qu'il  a  franchi ! 
Toi  qui  vis  sur  tes  bords  les  oppresseur  du  monde 
Errer,  et  demander  du  sommeil  a  ton  onde; 
Tibulle  soupirer  les  delices  du  coeur, 
Scipion  dedaigner  les  fasceaux  du  licteur, 
Cesar  finir  son  triomphe  au  fond  de  tes  retraites, 
Mecene  y  mendier  de  la  gloire  au  poetes, 
Brutus  rever  le  crime  et  Caton  la  vertu: 
Dans  tes  cent-mille  voix,  Fleuve,  que  me  dis-tu? 
M'apportes-tu  des  sons  de  la  lyre  d'Horace.?" 

The  texts  of  all  the  praises  bestowed  on  Tibur  by 
ancient  poets  were  engraved  in  the  seventeenth  century 
on  the  lintels  of  doors  and  windows  of  the  Palazzo  Cesi 
(now  Massimi),  near  the  Porta  Santacroce,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Cardinal  Bernardino  Spada,  who,  surrounded. 


76      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

like  Maecenas,  by  the  leading  men  of  letters  of  his  age, 
used  to  repair  to  the  *' groves  of  Tiburnus  "  at  the  return 
of  each  summer,  until  his  death  in  1661. 

Guidebooks  describe,  and  local  ciceroni  point  out  to 
the  unsuspecting  stranger,  the  site  and  the  remains  of 
the  villas  of  Cassius,  Brutus,  Horace,  and  Maecenas, 
the  first  two  on  the  Carciano  road,  near  and  under  the 
casino  of  the  Irish  College,  the  third  at  Le  Ferriere, 
above  the  Cascatelle  or  smaller  waterfalls,  the  fourth 
at  Sant'  Antonio,  on  the  road  to  Quintiliolo.  There  is 
no  evidence  to  justify  such  statements,  but  so  far  as  the 
presence  and  social  intercourse  of  those  great  men  at 
Tibur  are  concerned,  tradition  is  right.  We  know  from 
Cicero^  that  Marcus  Junius  the  elder  had  left  to  his 
son,  Caesar's  murderer,  an  estate  at  Privernum,  one  at 
Alba,  and  one  at  Tibur,  which,  however,  the  heir  was 
compelled  to  sell  under  stress  of  circumstances.  The 
residence  on  these  hills  of  his  fellow-conspirator,  Caius 
Cassius  Longinus,  is  also  a  probability,  if  not  a  certainty, 
considering  that  he  had  married  Junia  Tertia  or  Ter- 
tulla,  the  half-sister  of  Brutus,  and  that  as  a  member  of 
the  same  extreme  political  party  he  must  have  followed 
his  kinsman  to  Tibur,  to  hatch  the  plot  against  the 
dictator  in  the  privacy  and  seclusion  of  their  adjoining 
villas.  2 

Horace  was  the  son  of  a  former  slave  of  the  Horatian 
family,  an  honest  and  thrifty  fellow,  who  had  been 
granted  freedom,  and,  having  acquired  a  sufficient  com- 

*  De  Oratore,  ii,  55. 

^  Local  topographers  lay  great  stress  on  the  mention  of  a  '* fundus 
Cassianu^  [farm  of  the  Cassian  family]  outside  the  gate  to  Rome"  which 
occurs  in  a  document  of  a.  d.  945,  also  on  the  name  of  the  road  leading  to  it, 
taking  Carciano  as  a  corruption  of  Cassiano.  The  evidence  is  not  conclusive. 


THE  SMALL  WATERFALLS 


OF  -TH^ 

UNIVERSnv 

OF 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  79 

petency  in  his  native  town  of  Venosa,  nursed  but  one 
ambition,  —  that  his  freeborn  son  should  have  a  higher 
career  in  life.  In  this  he  did  not  differ  from  the  Italian 
peasant  of  the  present  day,  v^ho  pinches  himself  to 
starvation  that  the  firstborn  of  the  family  may  enter 
the  university  and  become  a  professional  man.  So  the 
elder  Horace  dressed  the  lad  in  a  style  above  his  station 
in  life,  and,  instead  of  sending  him  to  the  village  school, 
carried  him  to  Rome,  where  he  could  be  educated  with 
sons  of  knights  and  senators.  "Twice  in  his  old  age 
Horace  alludes  rather  disparagingly  to  his  school-days 
in  Rome;  he  was  taught,  he  says,  out  of  a  Latin  trans- 
lation from  Homer,  and  his  master,  a  retired  soldier, 
Orbilius  by  name,  was  fond  of  the  rod.  ...  As  the 
young  Englishman,  on  leaving  college,  goes  to  Oxford 
or  Cambridge,  so  the  young  Roman  went  forth  to 
Athens;  and  there  we  find  Horace  at  about  nineteen 
years  of  age,  learning  Greek  and  attending  the  schools 
of  the  philosophers ;  .  .  .  and  there  an  influence  entered 
into  his  life  which  helped  to  mould  his  character,  but 
nearly  wrecked  his  fortunes.  Brutus,  immediately  after 
Caesar's  murder,  was  at  Athens,  residing,  as  we  should 
say,  in  his  old  university,  and  drawing  to  himself  the 
passionate  admiration  of  its  most  brilliant  undergrad- 
uates; among  whom  were  the  younger  Cicero  and 
Horace."  ^  When  Brutus  quitted  Athens,  after  a  time, 
to  take  command  of  the  army  raised  against  Antony, 
he  carried  Horace  in  his  company,  with  the  rank  of 
military  tribune. 

In  this  capacity  he  took  his  share  in  the  disastrous 

rout  at  Philippi,  which  followed  on  Brutus's  death,  and 

returned   to  Rome  humbled  and  with  clipped  wings. 

His  father  being  dead,  and  his  property  having  been 

^  Abridged  from  Tuckwell's  Horace. 


80      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 


confiscated,  he  had  to  begin  Hfe  again  at  twenty-four, 
first  as  a  clerk  in  a  pubUc  office,  later  as  a  writer  of 
verses.  We  cannot  help  admiring  his  pluck  under  such 
adversity.  No  man  is  ever  laid  on  the  shelf  by  Fate ;  he 
has  to  reach  success  by  sheer  force  of  determination. 

Horace's  first  compositions  were  personal  lampoons 
written  for  money  and  to  order;  still  they  attracted 
quick  notice  from  connoisseurs  such  as  Varius  and 
Virgil,  who  introduced  the  rising  bard  to  Maecenas. 

Maecenas's  patronage  of  emi- 
nent men  was  due  to  policy  as 
well  as  to  inclination.  Himself 
a  cultured  literary  critic,  fore- 
seeing the  full-winged  flight 
of  writers  still  half-fledged, — 
the  "iEneid  "  in  Virgil's  "  Ec- 
logues," the  "  Odes  "  in  Hor- 
ace's "  Epodes,"  —  he  would 
not  only  gather  round  his 
board  the  men  whom  we  know 
to  have  been  his  equals,  but 
he  saw  also  and  utilized  for  himself  and  for  his  master 
the  social  influence  which  a  rising  popular  poet  might 
wield.  To  Horace,  then,  now  twenty-seven  years  old, 
these  imposing  doors  were  opened.  The  first  interview 
was  unsatisfactory,  the  young  poet  being  tongue-tied 
and  stammering,  the  great  man  reserved  and  haughty; 
they  parted  mutually  dissatisfied.  Nine  months  later, 
however,  Maecenas  sent  for  him  again,  received  him 
formally  among  his  friends,  and  about  three  years  later 
presented  him  with  a  country  house  and  farm  amongst 
the  Sabine  hills,  a  few  miles  to  the  east  of  Tibur,  to 
which  the  reader  and  I  will  make  a  pleasant  pilgrimage 
in  due  course  of  time.    We  must  not  suppose  that  the 


Portrait  head  of  Horace  in  a  me- 
dallion of  the  third  century 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE 


81 


friendship  of  the  beady-eyed  lyrist  was  sought  by  the 
great  of  the  land  for  his  own  sake;  they  were  civil  to 
him  mostly  in  the  hope  of  securing  the  dedication  of  a 
poem,  by  means  of  which  their  names  would  pass  to 
posterity.  And  their  wishes  were  evidently  complied 
with,  for  nearly  all  the  owners  of  villas  at  Tibur  appear 
to  advantage  in  one  or  more  of  the  poet's  lyrics,  writ- 
ten, I  suppose,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  their  gracious 
hospitality.    Lollius,  Antonius,  Censorinus,  Munatius, 


The  peristyle  of  the  Temple  of  Hercules,  where  Augustus  administered  justice 

Varus,  Gallus,  and  not  a  few  gay  ladies  have  thus 
gained  immortality  in  exchange  for  civilities  shown  to 
the  son  of  an  ex-slave  of  Venosa. 

These,  then,  were  the  personages  whose  assembly  at 
Tibur  made  it  the  fashionable  resort  of  the  Augustan 
age.   They  were  joined  at  times  by  the  Emperor  himself. 


82      WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

to  whom  treatment  at  the  Aquae  Albulse  for  neurasthenia 
had  been  suggested  by  the  court  physician,  Antonius 
Musa.  Suetonius,  from  whom  we  gather  these  particu- 
lars, adds  that  the  Emperor,  while  undergoing  the 
treatment  at  Tibur,  would  occasionally  sit  in  the  peri- 
style of  the  temple  of  Hercules  and  administer  justice 
to  the  peasantry.  To  perpetuate  the  memory  of  these 
events  a  society  was  formed  among  the  Tiburtines, 
called  the  Herculanii  Augustales,  for  the  joint  worship 
of  the  deified  emperor  and  of  the  "santo  protettore"  of 
their  city.  This  society  flourished  for  many  centuries, 
and  its  doings  can  be  followed  with  the  help  of  records 
engraved  on  marble,  collected  by  Dessau  in  volume  xiv 
of  the  "  Corpus.  Inscr.  Latinarum." 

Augustus  did  not  possess  a  roof  of  his  own  on  the 
banks  of  the  Anio,  but  partook  of  the  hospitality  of 
some  of  his  courtiers  and  friends.  Here,  again,  we  have 
no  evidence  to  prove  that  his  prime  minister,  Maecenas, 
owned  a  villa,  except  local  tradition,  which,  however, 
couples  the  name  of  the  statesman  with  the  wrong  place. 
What  has  been  called  since  immemorial  times  "la  villa 
di  Mecenate,"  viz.,  the  gigantic  substructures  above  the 
Cascatelle  or  smaller  waterfalls,  we  all  know  now  to 
have  formed  part  of  the  sanctuary  of  Hercules.  But  I 
believe  tradition  to  be  correct  as  far  as  the  existence  of  a 
villa  of  Maecenas  is  concerned,  and  I  agree  with  Maurice 
Albert  ^  in  identifying  it  with  the  so-called  villa  of 
Brutus,  the  second  on  the  Carciano  road  on  the  western 
slope  of  Monte  Ripoli.  The  number  and  value  of  the 
works  of  art  which  this  villa  has  yielded  from  time  to 
time,  the  beauty  of  its  location,  the  view  it  commands 
as  far  as  the  sea,  and  a  certain  similarity  of  construction 
with  the  '*Horti  Maecenatiani "  on  the  Esquiline,  favor 
^  De  vUlis  Tiburtinis  prindpe  Augtisto,  Paris,  Thorin,  1883. 


THE  LAND   OF  HORACE 


83 


Albert's  theory.  There  are  three  terraces,  now  shaded 
by  ancient  oHves,  the  highest  of  which  lies  195  metres 
above  the  sea,  the  lowest  179  metres.  Great  walls  of 
reticulated  masonry  support  the  esplanades,  once  laid 
out  in  gardens  with  fountains  and  fish  ponds,  with  paths 
lined  by  low  walls  of  evergreens  crossing  each  other  at 


The  middle  terrace  of  the  villa  of  Maecenas  on  the  Carciano  road.     (From  a 
photograph  by  Dr.  Thomas  Ashby) 


right  angles,  and  with  portrait  busts  of  notable  men  set 
up  at  their  crossings  in  the  shape  of  hermse.  The  ac- 
count of  the  discoveries  made  in  this  villa  in  the  time  of 
Pius  VI  and  Pius  VII  reads  like  a  romance.  I  have  in 
my  library  a  manuscript  volume  of  the  correspondence 
that  passed  in  the  years  1772-1775  between  Giuseppe 
Matthias,  the  owner  of  the  place,  Domenico  de  An- 
gelis,  the  excavator,  and  Giovanni  Battista  Visconti, 
the  Pope's  director  of  antiquities,  which  contains  a  mass 


84      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

of  unpublished  details.  The  museum  of  statuary  was 
discovered  in  the  middle  terrace.  There  was  an  Apollo 
Citharhoedus  surrounded  by  seven  (out  of  nine)  Muses, 
a  Bacchus  lying  on  a  panther's  skin,  a  Pallas  Athena, 
a  Hygeia,  a  figure  of  Hypnos  (Sleep),  a  group  of  a 
Silenus  and  a  Bacchante,  hermse  of  Antisthenes,  Bias, 
Periander,  and  ^schines,  and  headless  hermse  in- 
scribed with  the  names  of  Pittacus,  Solon,  Cleobulus, 
Thales,  Anacreon,  Cabrias,  Pisistratus,  Lycurgus,  Pin- 
dar, Architas,  Hermarcus,  and  Diogenes.  The  whole 
collection  was  purchased  by  Pius  VI  for  the  sum  of  five 
thousand  scudi  —  one  twentieth  of  their  present  value  — 
and  exhibited  in  the  Sala  delle  Muse,  built  expressly 
from  the  designs  of  Antonini  and  painted  by  Raphael 
Mengs.  The  Bacchic  group  alone  was  purchased  by  an 
outsider,  the  banker  Jenkins,  for  six  hundred  scudi,  and 
resold  to  an  English  collector  for  four  thousand. 

A  second  search  made  by  Pius  VI,  in  1780,  led  to  the 
finding  of  an  eighth  Muse,  Urania,  of  some  statues  of 
Egyptian  style  in  black  marble,  of  a  crocodile  in  touch- 
stone, of  a  fragment  of  a  frieze  with  a  lizard  and  a  frog 
creeping  or  leaping  among  acanthus  leaves,  and  of  two 
mutilated  hermae  inscribed  with  the  names  of  Phidias 
and  Bacchylides.  A  last  herma  of  Plato  came  to  light 
from  the  lowest  terrace  in  the  year  1846. 

There  are  three  observations  to  be  made  apropos  of 
this  splendid  set  of  discoveries.  One  refers  to  the  lizard 
and  the  frog  sculptured  on  the  frieze  of  the  middle  ter- 
race ;  the  second  to  the  portrait  gallery  of  eminent  men ; 
the  third  to  the  group  of  the  Muses. 

The  lizard  (cravpo<s)  and  the  frog  (/Sarpaxos)  must  be 
considered  as  the  disguised  signatures  of  Saurus  and 
Batrachus,  the  favorite  artists  of  Augustus,  who  in- 
trusted to  them  the  designing,  carving,  and  erecting  of 


THE  LAND  OF  HORACE 


85 


the  temples  of  Jupiter  and  Juno  in  the  portico  of  Octa- 
via.  Pliny  says  that  as  they  were  denied  the  privilege  of 
signing  their  works  with  their  names,  they  hit  upon  the 
device  of  carving  among  the  flutings  of  the  columns  their 
armoiries  parlantes.  These  signs  appear  also  in  the 
floral  decoration  of  the  Ara  Pacis,  another  masterpiece 
of  the  Augustan  age.  We 
must  therefore  consider 
their  presence  in  the  frieze 
of  this  villa  on  the  Carciano 
road  as  an  additional  proof 
that  it  dates  from  the  same 
period,  and  that  plan  and 
decorations  were  proba- 
bly intrusted  by  the  prime 
minister  to  his  master's 
favorite  artists. 

As  regards  the  portrait 
busts  of  eminent  men,  in- 
scribed with  their  names, 

it  is  true  that  they  are  occasionally  found,  single  or  in 
couples,  on  the  sites  of  old  Roman  gardens;  but  no- 
where in  such  numbers  and  in  such  distinct  iconogra- 
phic  sets  as  at  Tibur.  The  first  of  these  portrait  galleries 
was  discovered  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  in 
Hadrian's  villa.  Some  of  the  hermse  perished  in  the  lime- 
kilns ;  nine  were  removed  to  a  rural  chapel  of  the  Virgin 
on  the  road  to  Tivoli,  where  they  were  described  by 
Martin  Sieder  in  1503;  five  more  were  discovered  in  1550 
by  Giambattista  Altoviti,  son  of  Bindo  the  banker,  and 
sold  to  Pope  Julius  III,  to  be  set  up  at  the  crossings  of 
the  garden  paths  of  the  Villa  Giulia  outside  the  Porta 
del  Popolo.  The  second  set  was  found  in  a  district  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Anio,  called  "i  Pesoni,"  among 


Marcella  Lanciani  del. 


Fragment  of  a  frieze  with  the  cryptic 
signature  of  Saurus  and  Batrachus 


86     \\^NDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  remains  of  a  villa  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  the 
Calpurnii  Pisones.  The  third  is  the  one  from  Maecenas's 
villa  at  Carciano,  now  exhibited  in  the  Sala  delle  Muse 
at  the  Vatican. 

In  Rome  there  were  at  least  two  iconographic  sets,  — 
one  in  the  gardens  of  the  same  statesman  on  the  Esqui- 
line  (the  Horti  Mseceniani),  and  one  in  the  Gardens  of 
Caesar  on  the  Janiculum.  I  have  myself  been  instru- 
mental in  recovering  many  hermse  from  both  places, 
such  as  the  one  bearing  the  name  of  Anacreon  (AN  AKPEQN 
AYPIKOC)  found  in  1884  in  a  hall  of  basilical  type 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  Horti  Caesaris,  which  had  es- 
caped discovery  by  former  explorers,  such  as  the  Mar- 
chese  Vittori  and  the  Cardinal  Alessandro  Farnese  in 
the  sixteenth  century  and  Giambattista  Guidi,  the  last 
inspector  of  antiquities  under  Pius  IX,  in  1859.  The 
finding  of  the  former  is  thus  described  by  Flaminio 
Vacca :  ^  "In  the  vineyard  of  the  Vettori,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Tiber,  outside  and  near  the  Porta  Portese, 
many  statues  and  portrait  heads  of  emperors  and  philo- 
sophers have  been  found  concealed  purposely  in  two 
crypts.  Some  of  these  hermse  are  to  be  seen  in  the  Vet- 
tori  palace  near  the  Pantheon;  but  the  best  part  of  the 
set  has  been  purchased  for  the  Farnese  museum." 

The  third  consideration  refers  to  the  finding  of  the 
Muses,  which  shows  at  once  that  the  villa  on  the  Car- 
ciano road  must  have  belonged  to  a  patrician  of  great 
wealth.  Many  citizens  were  able  to  purchase  a  statue  or 
two  for  their  houses  and  gardens.  We  shall  see  in  the 
chapter  on  Lauren tum  how  the  owner  of  "Queen  Ele- 
na's cottage"  at  that  little  seaside  place  was  satisfied 
with  the  possession  of  one,  a  marble  copy  of  Myron's 
bronze  Discobolus,  but  only  the  few  who  had  accumu- 

^  Memor.y  96. 


THE  LAND  OF  HORACE 


87 


lated  great  fortunes  could  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  pur- 
chasing groups  like  those  of  the  Muses,  of  the  Niobids, 
of  the  Gauls  defeated  by  King  Attains  I,  or  of  Orpheus 


The  bust  of  Anacreon  discovered  by  the  author  in  the  Gardens  of 
Caesar  in  1884 


taming  the  wild  beasts.  The  first  numbered  ten  or  eleven 
subjects,  if  we  add  to  the  figures  of  the  nine  sisters  those 
of  Apollo  and  of  the  horse  Pegasus;  the  second,  about 
twenty-four,  including  Apollo,  Diana,  Niobe,  fourteen 
sons  and  daughters,  with  their  tutors  and  governesses 


88      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

and  ponies.  Consequently,  whenever  one  or  more  Pieri- 
des  or  Niobids  are  discovered  in  searching  ancient  sites, 
we  may  be  sure  that  we  have  to  deal  with  the  estate  of 
an  emperor  or  of  a  wealthy  patrician.  Such  was  the 
case  at  this  villa  on  the  Carciano  road. 

The  rendezvous  for  this  brilliant  group  of  men  of  the 
Augustan  age  was  the  cottage  of  Cynthia,  located  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river  on  the  Quintiliolo  road,  near 
and  under  the  suburban  monastery  of  Sant'  Antonio. 
Her  real  name  was  Hostia ;  her  right  to  fame,  the  poems 
of  Pro  per  tins,  whose  mistress  she  appears  to  have  been 
for  the  space  of  five  years ;  her  chief  characteristic,  ner- 
vousness. Cynthia  could  not  live  in  her  town  house  on 
the  Esquiline  for  more  than  two  or  three  weeks  at  a 
time,  rushing  in  her  restlessness  now  to  the  Artemisium 
at  Nemi  for  the  cold-water  cure,  now  to  Prseneste  to 
consult  the  oracle,  now  to  Tusculum  and  Lanuvium  for 
a  change  of  air,  and  now  to  Baise  for  the  sake  of  its  hot 
springs.  She  used  to  fly  from  place  to  place  in  an  esseda 
drawn  by  Gaulish  ponies,  followed  by  a  retinue  of  ser- 
vants and  dogs.  This  last  precaution  was  considered 
necessary  because  of  the  insecurity  of  the  roads.  Her 
lover  himself  mentions  the  danger  of  the  journey  from 
RometoTibur  in  ''Elegies,"  iii,  16.  Having  been  once 
summoned  at  sunset  to  join  her  in  haste,  he  debates  with 
himself  which  is  the  lesser  evil  to  face,  —  the  wrath  of 
Cynthia  at  his  not  obeying  the  summons,  or  the  risk 
of  meeting  highwaymen,  who  at  that  time  infested  the 
neighborhood  of  the  sulphur  springs  (the  Aquae  Al- 
bulse).  Love  conquers  fear,  and  the  poet,  having  safely 
crossed  the  dangerous  district,  hails  the  familiar  outline 
of  Cynthia's  cottage  just  as  the  sun  rises  over  the  tem- 
ple-crowned top  of  the  iEfulse  mountains. 

Cynthia  dearly  loved  her  Tiburtine  retreat,  facing  the 


VIEW  FROM  THE  TERRACE  OF  CYNTHIA'S  VILLA  AT  SANT* 

ANTONIO 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  91 

falls  of  the  Anio.  Perhaps  the  sound  of  the  rushing 
waters,  borne  to  her  in  the  stillness  of  the  night  by  the 
mountain  breeze,  soothed  her  nerves  and  lulled  her  to 
sleep.  Equally  renowned  for  ancient  lineage,  personal 
attractions,  and  proficiency  in  the  "  castse  Palladis  artes," 
she  is  compared  by  Propertius  to  the  Aganippides  in 
the  art  of  singing,  and  to  Corinna  for  literary  accom- 
plishments. No  one  gazing  at  her  blue  eyes,  or  listening 
to  her  words  of  welcome,  could  escape  her  fascination. 
Even  society  small-talk  would  become  a  dainty  musical 
phrase  when  uttered  by  her  lips,  and  would  call  forth 
pretty  speeches  in  return.  We  can  picture  in  imagina- 
tion the  hostess,  exquisite  of  form  and  features,  with  the 
lissomeness  of  a  young  girl,  receiving  her  guests  on  the 
terrace  overlooking  the  precipice,,  where  bowls  of  roses 
and  bunches  of  violets  made  the  air  redolent  with  the 
scent  of  May.  Her  next-door  neighbors  were  Quintilius 
Varus  on  one  side  and  the  poet  Catullus  on  the  other; 
but  her  chief  circle  of  acquaintances  embraced  every 
villa  owner  who  was  not  fettered  by  matrimonial  ties. 
Varus  was  not  the  general  slain  in  the  forest  of  Teuto- 
burg,  with  the  pick  of  the  Roman  army,  but  a  kinsman, 
a  literary  critic  whose  intimacy  with  Horace,  Virgil,  and 
Catullus  makes  us  believe  that  they  also  partook  of 
Cynthia's  hospitality,  whose  garden  gate  they  were 
obliged  to  pass  on  their  way  to  Quintiliolo.  Her  list  of 
visitors  must  have  included  also  Maecenas,  the  prime 
minister;  Tibullus,  wlio  used  to  drive  over  from  Pedum 
(Gallicano);  Cornelius  Gallus,  the  conqueror  of  the 
Soudan;  P.  Sulpicius  Quirinius,  the  governor  of  Syria 
at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  Saviour;  not  to  mention 
Catullus,  whose  villa  is  placed  by  the  historians  of 
Tivoli  on  the  site  of  Sant'  Angelo  di  Piavola.  Virgil  and 
Horace  cannot  have  been  brilliant  companions.    One 


92      WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 


The  lower  terrace  of  the  villa  of  Maecenas.     (From  a  photograph  by 
Miss  Dora  Bulwer) 

suffered  from  angina  pectoris,  the  other  from  eyes  *'lippi 
et  defluentes,"  so  that  Augustus,  in  whose  suite  they 
occasionally  travelled,  used  to  say  that  he  was  followed 
by  sighs  and  tears.  But  the  conversation  on  that  garden 
terrace  certainly  did  not  lack  brightness  and  interest, 
whether  they  were  listening  to  the  recital  of  Gallus's 
exploits  in  the  region  of  Khartoum,  to  the  accounts  of 
the  manners  and  superstitions  of  the  Jews  by  Quirinius, 
or  to  the  latest  ode  written  by  Horace  in  praise  of  one  of 
the  guests. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  scanty  accounts  we  possess 
respecting  the  career  of  Gallus,  himself  a  poet  of  no 
mean  genius,  are  to  be  found  in  Virgil,  Proper  tins,  and 
Ovid,  all  partakers  of  Cynthia's  hospitality.  Gallus  was 
of  obscure  ancestry;  but  neither  modesty  of  birth  nor 
poverty  of  means  prevented  his  entering  the  court  circles 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  93 

at  last  and  gaining  favor  with  the  Emperor.  In  the 
Egyptian  campaign  against  Antony  he  distinguished 
himself  at  the  conquest  and  defence  of  the  harbor  of 
Parsetonium,  for  which  exploits  he  was  rewarded  with 
the  first  governorship  of  the  conquered  land  of  the  Nile. 
This  great  stroke  of  fortune  and  this  great  proof  of 
imperial  good  will  seem  to  have  turned  his  head.  He 
talked  too  much  and  too  loud  of  himself  to  please  his 
benefactor;  and  Ovid^  accuses  him  of  uttering  trea- 
sonable speeches  under  the  influence  of  drink.  Then 
followed  his  expedition  against  the  rebellious  cities  of 
Heroopolis  and  Thebes,  in  which  he  indulged  in  acts  of 
wanton  cruelty  and  robbery.  Valerius  Largus,  formerly 
his  confidential  friend,  denounced  him  to  Augustus,  by 
whom  Gallus  was  forbidden  to  enter  the  imperial  pal- 
ace. Gallus  could  not  endure  the  disgrace,  and  killed 
himself  with  his  sword,  much  to  the  regret  of  Augustus, 
who  had  certainly  not  foreseen  such  a  denouement. 
That  Gallus  ten  years  before,  at  least,  was  neither  a 
violent  nor  a  dishonest  man,  is  shown  by  the  wording  of 
the  dedication  of  Virgil's  tenth  eclogue  to  him.  It  is  true 
that  the  apology  of  Gallus,  contained  in  the  latter  part 
of  this  eclogue,  was  changed  by  Virgil,  in  obedience  to  an 
imperial  command,  into  the  Fable  of  Aristseus;  but  this 
circumstance  ^  proves  less  the  guilt  of  Gallus  than  that 
the  recollection  of  his  end  was  painful  to  Augustus. 
The  site  of  the  villa  at  Tibur,  where  Lycoris  and  Gallus 
passed  so  many  happy  summers,  is  not  known. 

Quirinius,  whose  name  has  been  made  famous 
through  the  Christian  world  by  the  lines  in  Luke  ii 
("  and  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days  that  there  went  out 
a  decree  from  Caesar  Augustus,  that  all  the  world  should 

1   TrisL,  2,  445. 

^  Related  by  Donatus,  Vita  Virgil.,  x,  39. 


94     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

be  taxed.  And  this  taxing  was  first  made  when  Quiri- 
nius  was  governor  of  Syria"),  had  his  villa  outside  the 
Porta  Romana,  on  the  road  to  Ponte  Lucano,  where  an 
inscription  describing  his  military  and  political  career 
was  discovered  in  1764.  Luke  confuses  the  universal 
census — the  mensuratio  totius  orhis — taken  by  Agrippa's 
command  in  the  year  29-28  b.  c,  with  the  special  census 
of  Palestine  taken  by  Quirinius  in  a.  d.  5.  This  famous 
member  of  the  Tiburtine  coterie  had  been  married  to 
iEmilia  Lepida,  whom  he  divorced  in  the  year  1. 
Twenty  years  later  he  brought  another  accusation 
against  her,  and  this  revengeful  conduct  caused  great 
disaffection  among  his  friends.    He  died  in  a.  d.  21. 

The  reader  who  is  not  conversant  with  ancient  man- 
ners and  customs  may  be  curious  to  know  whether  in 
Roman  fashionable  circles  there  were  any  social  func- 
tions corresponding  to  our  afternoon  tea  and  card  par- 
ties. The  query  seems  almost  vulgar  and  irreverent,  in 
view  of  the  proper  dignity  of  an  archaeological  book. 
However,  as  Forsyth  has  already  remarked,  '*  We  are  too 
apt  to  clothe  the  ancients  in  buckram,  and  view  them, 
as  it  were,  through  a  magnifying  glass,  so  that  they  loom 
before  us  in  the  dim  distance  in  almost  colossal  propor- 
tions. But  we  forget  that  they  were  men  very  much  like 
ourselves,  and  accustomed  to  talk  and  act  like  ordinary 
mortals.  Pascal  says,  with  as  much  truth  as  wit,  *  On  ne 
s'imagine  d'ordinaire  Platon  et  Aristote  qu'avec  des 
grandes  robes,  et  comme  des  personnages  toujours 
graves  et  serieux.  C'etaient  d'honnetes  gens,  qui  riaient 
comme  les  autres  avec  leurs  amis;  et  quand  ils  ont  fait 
leur  lois  et  leurs  traites  de  politique,  9'a  ete  en  se  jouant 
et  pour  se  divertir.'"  ^    It  is  curious  and  interesting  to 

*  W.  Fors3rth,  HortensiuSy  London,  Murray,  1849,  p.  viii. 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE 


95 


trace  the  similarity  in  matters  of  every-day  practice  be- 
tween ancient  and  modern  times,  and  often  we  seem, 
while  studying  the  classics,  to  be  reading  what  might 
have  happened  yesterday.  Nothing  tends  so  forcibly  as 
this  to  make  us  realize  the  past  and  live  among  the 
ancients. 

First,  then,  as  to  refreshments  at  fashionable  gatherings. 
I  have  in  my  collection  an  unpublished  (?)  drawing  of  a 
samovar  discovered  not 
far  from  Terracina,  so 
elegant  in  shape  and  so 
rich  in  material,  that  far 
from  belonging  to  a  com- 
mon thermopoliuvi,^  it 
must  have  come  straight 
from  the  boudoir  of  a 
lady  of  rank.  The  drink 
brewed  in  such  vessels 
was  called  calda  or  ca- 
lida,  and  consisted  of 
hot  water  flavored  with 
spices  or  aromatic  herbs, 
like  our  tilia  or  camomile 
infusions.  Wine  was  of- 
ten served  with  it,  but 
separately,  so  as  to  leave 
the  guests  the  choice  of 
manipulating  the  mix- 
ture to  suit  their  taste  or 

the  season.  The  heating  apparatus  was  named  aenum, 
and  the  vessel  in  which  the  hot  water  was  kept  au- 
thepsa.  Boettiger  says  on  this  subject,  "It  is  quite 
credible  that  the  ancients  had  something  to  match  our 
*  A  common  shop  where  hot  drinks  could  be  obtained. 


Ancient  vessel  for  hot  drinks  found  near 
Terracina.  Side  view.  (From  an  un- 
published drawing  in  the  possession  of 
the  author) 


96     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 


tea  or  coffee  services  " ;  ^  and  reproduces  from  the  "  Museo 
Borbonico,"  iii,  63,  the  shape  of  the  bronze  samovar  of 
Pompeii,  one  of  the  most  elegant  specimens  of  its  kind. 
The  one  here  represented,  discovered  near  Terracina,  is 
now,  I  believe,  in  the  possession  of  the  king  of  Den- 
mark. 

We  know  what  Horace's  scale  of  appreciation  was  on 
the  subject  of  a  well-furnished  cellar.    The  choicest  of 

all  Italian  wines,  ac- 
cording to  his  taste,  was 
the  Csecuban,  from  the 
poplar  -  trained  vines 
grown  in  the  swamps 
of  Amyclse  in  Campa- 
nia. Heady  and  gener- 
ous and  reserved  for 
great  banquets,  it  re- 
quired a  long  seasoning, 
hence  the  expression 
'*  stored  still  in  our 
grandsire's  bins,"  used 
in  Odes  iii,  27,  and  i, 
37.  It  was  beyond  the 
poet's  means,  and  he 
could  feast  on  it  only  at 
Maecenas's  table  or  on 
board  his  galley.  Next 
came  the  Formian  and  Falernian,  grown  on  the  south- 
ern slopes  of  the  hills  dividing  Campania  from  Latium 
—  fierce,  rough,  fiery  wines,  which  he  recommends  mix- 
ing with  the  milder  brands  from  Chios  or  Surrentum, 
or  sweetening  and  diluting  with  honey  from  Mount 
Hymettus.    The  lowest  in  his  estimation  was  the  Alban, 

^  Sabina,  ii,  35. 


Ancient  vessel  for  hot  drinks  found  near 
Terracina.     Sectional  view 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  97 

which  he  used  as  '*vin  de  table."  The  Emperor  him- 
self —  supposing  he  had  honored  with  his  presence  the 
gatherings  at  Tibur  —  would  have  checked  any  con- 
vivial merriment  with  his  abstemiousness.  As  his  bio- 
grapher certifies,  he  would  have  accepted  from  his 
hostess  only  **a  slice  of  bread  dipped  in  cold  water,  or 
a  slice  of  cucumber,  or  the  heart  of  a  lettuce,  or  an 
unripe  apple."  * 

Social  games  were  pursued  not  only  as  a  recreation 
but  also  with  the  hope  of  gain.  Those  of  hazard  had 
become  a  pernicious  mania,  to  which  the  happiness 
and  fortunes  of  many  were  sacrificed.  In  other  and 
more  innocent  games  success  depended  on  the  skill  of 
the  players.  The  most  popular  and  dangerous  was  the 
throwing  of  dice  (alea).  Juvenal  says  that  enormous 
sums  were  lost  in  this  kind  of  play.  It  was  considered 
more  or  less  illicit,  and  persons  who  allowed  gambling 
in  their  houses  could  not  lodge  legal  complaints  even  in 
case  of  violence  and  robbery.  But  the  law  was  trans- 
gressed in  private,  even  in  the  imperial  palace,  some 
of  the  emperors  being  passionately  devoted  to  games 
of  chance,  like  Claudius,  who  wrote  a  manual  on  the 
subject. 

Here,  again,  supposing  Augustus  to  have  been  a  vis- 
itor at  Cynthia's  villa,  we  know  what  line  of  conduct  he 
would  have  followed  if  challenged  to  take  a  share  in 
social  games.  Suetonius  says  that  he  never  made  a  pre- 
tence to  dislike  those  of  chance;  on  the  contrary,  he 
played  openly  and  simply  for  the  pleasure  of  it,  to  the 
end  of  his  life,  not  only  at  the  lawful  time  of  the  Satur- 
nalia, but  on  every  feast  day.  His  correspondence  with 
Tiberius  abounds  in  interesting  details,  especially  about 
the  making  of  a  pool  among  players  and  about  his  per- 

^  Suetonius,  Octav.t  77. 


98     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

sonal  profits  and  losses.  Of  profits  there  were  none,  be- 
cause of  his  kindness  and  generosity  towards  the  guests, 
as  shown  by  this  fragment  of  a  letter  to  his  adopted  son  : 
**We  had  a  pleasant  quinquatrus  [the  school  holidays, 
March  19-23],  playing  every  day  and  making  the  dice 
room  hot.  Thy  brother  was  loudly  in  despair,  although 
his  losses  were  not  heavy.  I  lost  myself  twenty  thou- 
sand sesterces  [$800],  which  is  not  exactly  true,  because, 
had  I  not  made  good  the  losses  of  some  of  the  guests, 
I  should  have  won  fifty  thousand  [$2000]."  In  his 
old  age  he  became  fond  also  of  playing  a  species  of 
lottery  with  prizes  consisting  of  objects  of  value,  curios- 
ities, surprises,  etc.,  which  he  provided  himself.  Some- 
times he  obliged  his  guests  to  bid  for  a  picture  of  which 
only  the  back  could  be  seen;  sometimes  he  would  him- 
self write  the  labels  to  be  drawn  by  the  guests,  which 
insured  them  the  possession  of  the  most  varied  objects, 
such  as  *' robes,  silver,  gold,  sponges,  rare  coins  and 
medals,  scissors,  pictures,  curling  irons,  hoes  or  rakes  of 
the  kind  used  by  bakers  in  stirring  the  ashes  of  the  oven, 
and  sheets  of  hair-cloth."  These  lotteries  were  drawn 
especially  at  the  time  of  the  Saturnalia,  the  classic  car- 
nival, the  beginning  of  which  had  just  been  fixed  by 
Augustus  at  the  seventeenth  day  of  December. 

If  we  add  to  these  pleasant  distractions  a  game  of  ten- 
nis, we  have  exhausted,  I  believe,  the  subject  of  social 
games  in  the  days  when  Cynthia's  terrace  was  crowded 
with  villa-builders  of  the  Augustan  age.  Tennis  was 
not  played  then  under  our  own  rules,  nor  with  the  help 
of  rackets;  it  was  more  a  mild  gymnastic  exercise  than 
sport.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  tennis  players  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  while  indulging  in  a  game  of  ball, 
had  in  view  the  training  of  their  bodies  for  health, 
vigor,  and  grace  of  movement   rather  than    anything 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  99 

else;  and  that  the  sight  of  a  game  played  on  a  patrician 
court  (sphceristerium)  must  have  created  the  same 
charming  impression  on  bystanders  that  the  wandering 
Ulysses  felt  at  the  sight  of  Nausicaa  playing  with  her 
attendant  maidens,  and  dancing  in  measured  time  while 
the  ball  was  tossed  from  one  to  another.  Without  enter- 
ing into  particulars,  which  can  easily  be  gathered  from 
archaeological  manuals  and  dictionaries,  it  is  enough  for 
my  purpose  of  giving  a  finishing  touch  to  the  scenes  en- 
acted in  Cynthia's  garden,  to  mention  these  few  points/ 
Ordinary  balls  (pilce),  made  of  cloth,  were  stuffed  with 
horse-hair,  while  the  tennis  balls  (folles)  were  inflated 
with  air.  Light  glass  balls  came  into  fashion  at  the  end 
of  the  second  century,  through  the  astounding  perform- 
ances of  Ursus  Togatus  in  the  tennis  courts  of  the  Baths 
of  Agrippa,  Nero,  Titus,  and  Trajan.  The  game  was 
played  with  soft  gloves,  and  was  but  a  display  of  grace, 
agility,  and  skill,  as  described  in  Ursus's  celebrated 
eulogy.^  The  quarters  or  lappets  of  tennis  balls  were 
often  colored,  and  great  care  was  taken  to  have  the  com- 
messurce  or  seams  carefully  joined  together.  Courts  were 
paved  with  a  wooden  floor  upon  which  the  base  and  the 
middle  lines  were  marked  when  the  sphoeromachia  was 
played ;  no  lines  being  needed,  as  nearly  as  I  can  judge, 
for  the  trigon  or  triangular  game.  Men  of  all  ages 
could  indulge  in  tennis  '*  without  loss  of  dignity."  Augus- 
tus took  exercise  with  hard  and  soft  balls  until  he  grew 
too  old  for  anything  but  the  litter  or  a  gentle  walk. 
Vespasian  attributed  the  excellent  health  which  he  en- 
joyed to  the  end  of  his  life  to  his  daily  use  of  the  sphceris- 
terium.    The  well-known  line  of  Horace  ^  seems  to  refer 

*  Compare  Luigi  Tocco,  Ricerche  sidV  antichita  del  giuoco  delta  palla, 
Rome,  1869. 

^  Corpus  Inscr.  Lat.,  vol.  vi,  part  ii,  n.  9797.  ^  SatireSy  i,  5. 


100    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

to  a  scene  actually  enacted  on  the  court  of  the  Tiburtine 
hostess.  Maecenas  having  expressed  his  wish  to  start  a 
game,  Horace  and  Virgil  decline  to  take  a  hand  in  it, 
one  on  the  plea  of  sore  eyes,  the  other  of  asthma.  Com- 
menting on  this  passage,  Galen,  the  prince  of  the  med- 
ical school  at  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  remarks  that 


Vestiges  of  one  of  the  reception  rooms  in  Cynthia's  villa.     (From  a  photograph  by 

Dr.  Thomas  Ashby) 

those  who  indulge  in  excessive  gymnastic  exercises  be- 
come, "like  the  Litse  of  Homer,  lame,  wrinkled,  cross- 
eyed," while  those  who  play  judiciously  at  ball  escape 
such  afflictions. 


It  would  certainly  afford  great  satisfaction  to  the 
visitor  to  know,  beyond  any  shade  of  doubt,  that  the 
remains  to  be  seen  under  the  church  and  monastery  of 
Sant'  Antonio  are  those  of  Cynthia's  villa ;  so  that,  sitting 


THE  LAND   OF  HORACE  101 

on  the  garden  terrace  below  the  church,  —  as  I  have  so 
often  done  as  the  guest  of  the  late  owner,  John  Searle, 
Esq.,  —  he  could  almost  hear  again  the  conversation 
of  those  wise  men  and  feel  the  charms  of  their  gracious 
hostess.  But  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  no 
such  identification  is  possible.  Local  antiquaries,  in 
fact,  have  connected  Cynthia's  name,  not  with  Sant' 
Antonio,  but  with  another  group  of  ruins  to  be  seen 
(not  without  difficulty)  on  the  left  of  the  lane  descending 
from  Quintiliolo  to  the  Ponte  dell'  Acquoria.  These 
ruins  were  excavated  for  the  first  time  in  1778,  and 
again  in  1819.  Among  the  many  discoveries,  one  would 
have  proved  of  absorbing  interest  if  proper  attention 
had  been  paid  to  it.  Fea^  the  Pope's  commissario 
delle  antichita,  describes  it  as  follows:^  "A  life-sized 
female  draped  statue  in  a  sitting  posture,  resembling  a 
Muse;  of  good  workmanship  and  preservation.  .  .  . 
The  head,  which  has  been  found  close  to  the  body, 
and  which  was  made  to  fit  on  the  shoulders  by  means 
of  a  socket,  is  the  work  of  an  inferior  hand,  and  of  dif- 
ferent marble.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  portrait  head  of  a 
portrait  statue."  I  have  done  my  best  to  find  where 
this  statue  was  removed  in  1819,  and  where  it  may  be 
at  present,  but  without  result.  Two  sitting  Fauns  in 
the  act  of  pouring  water  into  a  basin  of  a  fountain,  dis- 
covered at  the  same  time,  were  purchased  for  the  Vatican 
Museum;  but  no  mention  is  made  in  the  records  of  the 
trustees  of  the  fate  of  the  sitting  lady  resembling  a 
Muse,  which  may  have  been  a  portrait  statue  of  Cynthia 
herself. 

There  is,  however,  a  bust  in  the  Borghese  Museum 
which  recalls  her  image  most  vividly.    It  is  a  portrait 
of  a  lady,  endowed  with  the  same  divine  gifts  of  poetry 
*  Varieta,  p.  166,  n.  xx. 


102    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

and  loveliness,  and  named  Petronia  Musa.  I  wonder 
whether  the  name  Musa  was  given  her  at  her  birth,  as 
an  omen  of  her  future  career,  or  after  she  had  given 
evidence  of  a  poetical  spirit.  At  all  events,  the  poetess, 
besides  her  connection  with  the  aristocratic  family  of 
the  Petronii,  must  have  risen  to  great  fame,  for  the 
memorial  now  in  the  Borghese  Museum  was  put  up,  not 
by  relatives,  but  by  friends  and  admirers,  as  explained 
in  the  Greek  epitaph,  which  says :  *'  In  this  grave,  erected 
by  subscription  [or  set  up  in  a  public  place]  lies  the  blue- 
eyed  Musa,  the  nightingale  suddenly  struck  dumb.  .  .  . 
Oh,  dear  Musa,  may  the  earth  be  light  to  thee !  ^  What 
evil  power  has  taken  away  from  us  our  siren  ?  Who 
has  deprived  us  of  our  little  singing  bird  ?  In  one  night 
she  breathed  her  last  and  her  body  was  dissolved. 
Musa,  thou  art  gone!  Thine  eyes  sparkle  no  more;  thy 
lips  are  sealed  forever.  No  trace  is  left  of  thy  beauty  or 
of  thy  learning." 

This  touching  epitaph  gives  no  biographical  details; 
in  fact,  we  do  not  know  where  it  was  exhumed,  whether 
in  Rome  or  in  one  of  the  Borghese  estates.  When 
Manilli  wrote  his  description  of  the  Villa  Pinciana  for 
the  Jubilee  of  1650,  the  gravestone  stood  as  a  pedes- 
tal to  a  statue  of  Ceres  in  one  of  the  avenues;  it  was 
transferred  to  the  casino  only  after  the  Napoleonic 
spoliations,  to  fill  a  gap  in  the  entrance  hall.  The 
**basketwise"  style  of  dressing  the  hair,  which  we  no- 
tice in  Musa's  portrait,  came  into  fashion  in  the  time 
of  Trajan ;  and  we  may  argue  from  this  detail  that  she 

^  A  graceful  French  adaptation  of  the  classic  sit  tihi  terra  levis  was  writ- 
ten by  Alexandre  Dumas  for  the  grave  of  Olga  Wassiliewna,  a  girl  of 
twenty  who  died  at  Derbent  in  Tartary  in  1833 :  — 

O  terre  de  la  mort  ne  pese  pas  sur  elle: 
Elle  a  si  peu  pese  sur  celle  des  vivants! 


THE  LAND  OF  HORACE 


103 


must  have  flourished  about  a  century  after  the  death 
of  Cynthia. 

This  charming  representative  of  the  society  of  the 
Augustan  age  had  intrusted  the  safe  keeping  of  her 
own  grave  to  her  lover  Pro  per  tins.  If  we  can  believe 
local  traditions,  the  grave  is  still  in  existence;  it  is  a 
square  massive  structure,  bare  of  all  ornaments,  on 
the  left  border  of  the  path  descending  from  Quintiliolo 
to  the  river.  The  name  of  "sepolcro  di  Cinzia"  may 
be  only  a  fanciful  creation  of  the  Renaissance  antiqua- 
rians; but  it  is  not   the  writer  of  this  book  who  will 


Tetronia  Musa 


104    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

dispute  the  accuracy  of  the  statement;  it  fits  too  well 
the  memorials  of  the  past. 

Illustrious  women  showed  partiality  for  Tivoli  even 
in  the  middle  ages  and  in  the  Renaissance.  Perhaps 
they  found  an  inducement  for  gracing  with  their  presence 
the  old  Argsean  colony  in  the  popular  belief  that  its 
climate  was  good  for  the  complexion.  Tibur  was  the 
only  place  known  to  the  ancients  where  ivory  was  not 
discolored  or  blackened  by  age;  in  fact,  old  ivory  used 
to  be  stored  in  the  temple  of  Hercules  that  it  might 
regain  its  original  whiteness.  Martial  informs  us  that 
Lycoris,  who  was  a  brunette,  cleared  her  skin  wonder- 
fully by  spending  a  season  at  the  waterfalls  of  the  Anio. 

Quite  different  were  the  reasons  which  impelled  Mar- 
guerite of  Austria  to  visit  Tivoli  in  1540.  This  hand- 
some daughter  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  popularly 
known  as  Madama  d'  Austria,  whom  the  assassination  of 
Duke  Alessandro  de'  Medici  had  left  a  widow  at  an  early 
age,  had  entered  Rome  in  triumph  on  November  3,  1538, 
as  the  affianced  wife  of  Duke  Ottavio  Farnese,  nephew  of 
the  reigning  Pope.  I  have  already  described  in  "  Golden 
Days,"  pp.  115-119,  how  her  name  is  connected  forever 
with  such  historic  buildings  as  the  Palazzo  Madama, 
now  the  meeting-place  of  the  Italian  Senate,  and  with 
such  masterpieces  of  ancient  and  contemporary  art  as 
the  *'tazza  Farnese,"  now  in  the  Naples  museum,  and 
the  Villa  Madama  on  the  slopes  of  the  Monte  Mario. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  Tivoli  her  name  is  still  popular, 
on  account  of  her  connection  with  the  ancient  city  of 
Empulum,^  the  "Castrum  Sancti  Angeli"  of  the  middle 

^  I  was  able  to  identify  the  site  of  Castel  Madama  with  that  of  Empu- 
lum  in  the  spring  of  the  present  year,  after  an  archaeological  exploration 
of  its  territory  which  lasted  three  months. 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  105 

ages,  which  she  received  as  a  dowry  from  the  estate  of 
the  Medicis  after  the  murder  of  Alessandro.  After  the 
conclusion  of  the  Flemish  wars,  in  which  her  second  hus- 
band, Ottavio  Farnese,  had  led  the  imperial  armies  to 
victory,  she  lived  in  seclusion  in  this  mountain  strong- 
hold, which  retains  to  the  present  day  the  name  of  Castel 
Madama.  A  beautiful  and  charming  place  it  is,  clean, 
healthy,  prosperous,  commanding  an  exquisite  view, 
especially  in  the  early  months  of  the  year,  when  the  fore- 
ground is  steeped  in  a  bluish  haze  from  the  budding  of 
the  chestnut  groves,  while  the  mountains  which  frame 
the  landscape  are  still  wrapped  in  their  coat  of  snow. 
Marguerite's  first  visit  took  place  in  1540.  At  Tivoli  she 
was  given  hospitality  in  the  Town  House,  while  the  local 
noblesse  tried  to  make  her  stay  pleasant  with  hunting, 
dancing,  sports,  and  other  demonstrations  of  loyalty; 
and  although  her  own  suite  was  worthy  her  station  in 
life,  —  a  daughter  of  an  emperor  and  a  niece  of  a  pope, 
—  still  the  Tiburtine  ladies,  the  Leonino,  the  Sebastiani, 
the  Bulgarini,  the  Lolli,  the  Tobaldi,  and  others,  fully 
held  their  own.  A  contemporary  chronicler  describes 
these  ladies  as  dressing  and  moving  ''a  la  Romana," 
wearing  robes  of  velvet,  satin,  brocade,  damask,  and 
"ermisino,"  with  neck,  wrists,  and  waistbands  studded 
with  pearls.  They  wore  also  Spanish  ruffles,  hoods  of 
gold-cloth,  perfumed  gloves,  and  satin  slippers,  and  in- 
dulged freely  in  rouge  and  other  cosmetics. 

As  regards  the  favor  which  Tivoli  found  with  artists 
and  literary  men  from  the  early  dawn  of  humanism,  I 
am  sorry  to  acknowledge  that  it  was  due  more  to  a  spirit 
of  self-preservation  than  to  admiration  of  ancient  re- 
cords or  natural  beauties.  The  hills  by  the  Anio  being 
considered  out  of  reach  of  the  plague,  which  periodically 
visited  Rome  at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  times  in  a  cen- 


106    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

tury,  it  became  customary  for  the  frightened  Quirites, 
and  for  foreign  residents,  to  take  refuge  in  TivoH  at  the 
first  sign  of  an  epidemic.  I  have  related  in  another  work  ^ 
how  the  Tiburtines,  annoyed  at  this  dangerous  mark  of 


The  high  street  of  mediaeval  Tivoli 

preference,  and  more  than  ordinarily  frightened  at  the 
outbreak  of  April,  1522,  met  the  refugees  at  the  Ponte 
Lucano  and  chased  them  back  to  the  stricken  city  with 
spikes  and  cudgels,  amidst  shouts  of  ''Death  to  the 
Romans!"    This  action,  however,  must  be  considered 

^  The  Golden  Days  of  the  Renaissance,  p.  82. 


THE  LAND  OF  HORACE  107 

exceptional,  because  Tivoli  had  been  a  kind  hostess  to 
people  in  distress  since  the  time  when  Poggio  Brac- 
ciolini,  flying  from  the  plague  in  the  summer  of  1424, 
had  claimed  its  hospitality.  Ciriaco  d'  Ancona,  the  first 
archaeological  explorer,  in  1432;  Enea  Silvio  Piccolo- 
mini  (Pius  II),  the  first  learned  tourist,  in  1460;  Sixtus 
IV,  the  first  pope  to  bring  back  into  fashion  the  use  of 
Tivoli  as  a  summer  resort,  in  1482;  Fra  Giocondo  da 
Verona,  the  first  architect-antiquarian  to  study  and  draw 
its  antique  remains;  Antonio  da  Sangallo  the  younger, 
who  sketched  its  statues  and  friezes  in  September,  1539; 
Michelangelo  and  Daniele  da  Vol  terra,  who  had  trans- 
formed into  a  summer  studio  one  of  the  halls  of  the  so- 
called  Villa  di  Mecenate,  stand  at  the  head  of  the  endless 
list  of  modern  artists,  poets,  archaeologists,  historians, 
philosophers,  who  followed  classic  traditions  in  regard  to 
Tivoli  all  through  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 
Tivoli,  in  fact,  must  be  considered  as  the  birthplace  of 
the  "Corpus  InscriptionumLatinarum,"  the  greatest  lit- 
erary undertaking  of  modern  times,  having  been  for 
years  the  rendezvous  of  that  brilliant  company  of  foreign 
epigraphists  —  Metellus,  Pigghe,  Smet,  Morillon,  de 
Romieu  d' Aries,  Sismondi  —  who  collected  the  first  mate- 
rials for  such  a  work.  But  the  artist-archseologist  of  the 
sixteenth  century  with  whom  the  name  of  Tivoli  is  most 
intimately  associated  is  the  designer  of  the  Villa  d'Este, 
the  excavator  of  Hadrian's  villa,  the  trusted  artistic 
adviser  of  Pope  Pius  IV,  Pirro  Ligorio,  who  has  left  us 
three  manuscript  books  on  the  city  and  territory  he 
loved :  the  first  dedicated  to  Cardinal  Ippolito  d'Este,  in 
whom  he  had  found  his  own  Maecenas;  the  second  to 
Cardinal  Alessandro  Farnese;  the  third  to  the  Holy 
Trinity.  The  literary  activity  of  this  gifted  man  strikes 
us    as    prodigious.    His    archaeological    dictionary   and 


108    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

cyclopaedia,  conceived  on  an  absolutely  modern  plan, 
and  illustrated  with  thousands  of  pen-and-ink  drawings, 
numbers  twenty-two  folio  volumes  which  are  now  pre- 
served in  the  royal  archives  at  Turin.  There  are  besides 
eight  more  volumes  in  Turin,  ten  in  Naples,  one  in  the 
Bodleian,  one  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  two  in  the 
Vatican  library.  There  is  not  a  single  excavation  made  in 
Rome  and  in  the  Campagna  between  1540,  the  approxi- 
mate date  of  his  arrival  from  Naples,  and  1568,  when 
he  left  Rome  forever  to  become  the  court  antiquarian  of 
Duke  Alfonso  II  of  Ferrara,  that  he  did  not  see  with  his 
own  eyes  and  describe.  Unfortunately  he  was  not  born 
to  speak  the  truth ;  he  was  a  born  impostor  and  forger, 
so  that  it  is  always  difficult,  sometimes  impossible,  to  de- 
cide whether  his  evidence,  when  unsupported  by  more 
trustworthy  witnesses,  rests  on  any  foundation  of  truth. 
Some  of  his  forgeries  are  so  clumsy  that  no  student  could 
be  deceived  by  them ;  others  are  so  subtle  and  ingenious 
•that  men  of  such  high  standing  as  Ludovico  Muratori 
and  Carlo  Fea  have  accepted  them  as  genuine. 

I  have  myself  found  so  much  useful  and  honest  infor- 
mation in  Ligorio's  manuscript  volumes,  especially  in  the 
Bodleian  (the  existence  of  which  among  the  Canonici 
set  of  manuscripts  I  first  discovered  in  1871  and  made 
public  in  the  following  year)  and  in  the  Parisian  of  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  that  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
brand  him  with  the  stigma  with  which  Famiano  Nardini 
has  been  branded  by  Becker,  "homo  natus  ad  confun- 
denda  et  perturbanda  omnia."  At  all  events,  it  is  not 
at  Tivoli,  face  to  face  with  the  Villa  d'Este,  Ligorio's 
stupendous  creation,  that  we  can  discuss  his  archaeologi- 
cal forgeries.  He  appeals  to  us  as  the  most  genial  artist 
of  his  age  in  adapting  classic  architecture  and  classic 
landscape-gardening  to  the  requirements  of  his  own  time ; 


:v.     •'    .-vy;. 


THK  COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  THE  D'ESTE  ON  THE  BALUSTRADE 
OF  THE  UPPER  TERRACE 


JVBRARr 
DIVERSITY  J 


OF 


^^  c 


K^"^ 


THE  LAND  OF  HORACE  111 

and  this  specialty  shines  not  only  in  this  Tiburtine 
residence  of  Cardinal  Ippolito,  but  equally  well  in  the 
delicious  casino  of  Pius  IV  in  the  Vatican  gardens,  in 
the  hemicycle  of  Belvedere,  and  even  in  the  lesser  works 
the  authorship  of  which  has  been  traced  to  him. 

Cardinal  Ippolito  is  the  second  of  the  family  in  the 
glorious  dynasty  of  the  Este  cardinals,  Ippolito  the 
elder  (t  1520),  Luigi  (t  1586),  Alessandro  (t  1624),  Ri- 
naldo  the  elder  (t  1672),  and  the  younger  Rinaldo 
(t  1737).  Born  of  Lucrezia  Borgia,  brother  to  Duke 
Ercole  II  of  Ferrara,  educated  at  the  court  of  Francis  I, 
elected  cardinal  in  1539,  he  returned  to  France  in  the 
following  year,  carrying  with  him  gold  and  silver  plate 
by  Benvenuto  Cellini,  reproductions  of  ancient  statues, 
armor  by  Gianpietro  Armaiuolo,  portraits,  ancient 
medals,  and  a  hunter  with  silver  harness.  His  exquisite 
taste  made  him  at  once  the  artistic  adviser  of  the  king; 
Sebastian  Serlio  designed  for  him  a  palace  at  Fontaine- 
bleau,  while  the  marriage  between  the  Due  de  Guise  and 
Anna  d'Este,  his  niece,  raised  him  almost  to  a  royal  posi- 
tion. However,  he  was  obliged  to  fly  from  France  after 
the  murder  of  the  duke,  being  himself  in  danger  of  death. 
The  reception  he  received  in  Rome  from  the  austere  and 
inexorable  Pius  V  made  him  seek  peace  and  safety  where 
the  great  Roman  statesmen  of  the  Augustan  age  had 
sought  and  found  it  before  him.  On  receiving  the  com- 
mission, Ligorio's  first  thought  was  to  levy  a  contribu- 
tion on  Hadrian's  villa  and  on  that  of  Quintilius  Varus, 
taking  from  both  places  building  materials,  marbles, 
columns,  capitals,  pavements,  statues,  bas-reliefs,  and, 
above  all,  artistic  inspiration  for  his  own  work.  He  even 
found  time  to  take  the  plan  of  both  places,  which,  com- 
pared with  the  clumsy  attempts  of  other  contemporary 


112    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

architects,  gives  him  the  leading  place  among  the  topo- 
graphers of  the  sixteenth  century/  These  documents 
having  come  under  the  notice  of  Cardinal  Antonio 
Barberini  in  1634,  his  architect,  Contini,  was  com- 
missioned to  bring  up  to  date  the  plan  of  Hadrian's  villa 
and  to  have  it  engraved  on  a  copper  plate. 

How  the  Villa  d'Este  must  have  looked  at  the  time  of 
Cardinal  Ippolito  and  of  his  immediate  successor,  Luigi, 
it  is  easier  to  imagine  than  to  describe.  The  inventory 
of  its  collection  of  statuary,  discovered  in  1879  by  Ber- 
tolotti  in  the  state  archives,  names  eighty-three  works 
of  statuary,  twenty-five  busts,  seven  figures  of  animals, 
seven  marble  tazzas,  three  sarcophagi,  and  a  sketch 
plan  of  ancient  Rome  in  full  relief.  No  mention  is  made 
of  pictures,  but  the  simple  fact  of  Ippolito  having  given 
away,  to  the  nuns  of  the  convent  of  Santa  Chiara  at 
Tivoli,  Raphael's  picture  of  Michael  the  archangel, 
proves  that  his  gallery  contained  masterpieces  to  spare. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  Villa  d'Este,  from  the 
beauty  of  its  site,  the  number  and  variety  of  its  works 
of  art,  the  abundance  of  its  rushing  water,  its  thousand 
fountains,  its  trout  ponds,  its  groves  of  cypresses,  ilexes, 
and  laurels,  should  have  been  given  the  place  of  highest 
honor  among  the  Italian  creations  of  the  same  nature, 
and  that  painters  and  engravers  should  have  taken  it 
as  a  favorite  subject  for  their  canvases  and  copper- 
plates.   In  the  Lafreri  collection  of  engravings,  known 

^  I  have  in  my  collection  of  prints  and  drawings  several  unpublished 
plans  by  Ligorio,  drawn  on  parchment,  such  as  the  designs  for  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Cortile  di  Belvedere,  presented  to  Pius  IV;  the  survey  of 
the  joint  harbors  of  Claudius  and  Trajan  at  Porto;  a  sketch  of  the  mauso- 
leum of  Augustus,  etc.  Some  of  them  will  shortly  be  reproduced  and  illus- 
trated by  the  prefect  of  the  Vatican  library,  Father  Ehrle,  S.  J.,  in  his  great 
work  on  the  pontifical  palace. 


THE  LAND   OF  HORACE 


113 


by  the  name  of  ''Speculum  Romanse  magnificentise," 
there  is  a  double  sheet,  printed  in  1573  by  the  French 
artist  Etienne  Duperac,  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor 
Maximilian.  Besides  a  dedication  to  Queen  Catherine 
Medici,  mother  of  Charles  IX,  the  sheet  contains  an 
index  of  the  principal  fountains,  which  bore  the  names  of 
Thetis,  iEsculapius,  Hygeia,  Arethusa,  Flora,  Pomona, 


LIgorio's  group  of  Rome  and  its  founders,  the  frontispiece  to  his  relief  plan  of 
the  city,  in  the  Villa  d'Este 

and  even  of  Venus  Cloacina,  not  from  antique  statues 
identified  as  such,  but  from  giant  figures,  modelled  in 
stucco  or  hewn  out  of  the  travertine,  with  which  the 
fancy  of  Ligorio  had  peopled  caves,  grottoes,  nym- 
phseums,  and  waterfalls.  Lafreri  has  also  published  a 
plate  of  the  fountain  of  the  Sibyl,  but  the  best  work  on 
this  charming  subject  is  the  volume  printed  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  by  De  Rossi,  under 


114    WANDERINGS  IN   THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  title,  "  Le  fontane  del  giardino  Es tense  in  Tivoli 
disegnate  et  intagliate  da  Gianfrancesco  Venturini." 

Cardinal  Ippolito  died  in  1572,  and  was  succeeded  in 
the  ownership  of  the  villa  and  in  the  governorship  of 
Tivoli  by  his  kinsmen  and  fellow  princes  of  the  church, 
Luigi  and  Alessandro.  After  the  death  of  the  latter  in 
1624,  villa  and  palace  were  despoiled  of  their  valuable 
contents.  The  antique  marbles  were  partly  sold,  partly 
transferred  to  Modena;  a  few  found  their  way  into  the 
Roman  museums,  such  as  the  Eros  bending  the  bow, 
Psyche  tormented  by  Eros,  the  Este  Pallas,  the  resting 
satyr,  and  the  old  woman  holding  a  vase,  presented  to 
the  Capitoline  Museum  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV  in  1753. 

Of  the  present  condition  of  this  once  enchanted  place, 
of  the  way  it  is  kept  by  its  archducal  owner,  of  the  dim- 
inution of  its  supply  of  water,  of  the  periodical  cutting 
of  its  noble  trees,  of  the  dilapidation  of  its  fountains  and 
stairs,  of  the  loss  of  Ligorio's  relief  plan  of  Rome,  I  shall 
not  speak,  for  fear  that  Ippolito  d'Este,  who  lies  buried 
in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore  quite  near  his 
beloved  villa,  should  rise  from  his  grave  in  wrath  and 
shame. 

The  example  set  by  this  gifted  scion  of  the  ducal 
house  of  Ferrara  found  no  imitators,  for  Gericomio,  the 
retreat  built  by  his  colleague  in  the  Sacred  College,  Pro- 
spero  Santacroce,  must  be  considered  a  farmhouse  rather 
than  a  villa ;  but  it  stands  in  a  glen  so  well  wooded  and 
picturesque,  it  conveys  such  a  soothing  impression  of 
peace  and  independence  from  the  outside  world,  and 
brings  back  to  the  mind  of  the  visitor  so  many  interesting 
recollections,  that  he  will  find  himself  amply  repaid  for 
the  fatigue  of  a  rather  long  walk.  Prospero  Santacroce, 
born  in  1513  in  the  palace  which  still  bears  the  family 


ONE  OF  LIGORIO'S  FOUNTAINS  IN  THE  HALL  OF  THE 
PALACE  COPIED  FROM  THE  ANTIQUE 


THE  LAND   OF  HORACE  117 

name,  deprived  of  his  parents  by  the  plague  in  the  pon- 
tificate of  Clement  VII,  and  of  the  greater  part  of  his 
inheritance  by  the  sack  of  1527,  escaped  to  the  Sabine 
village  of  Toffia  with  four  younger  brothers  and  sisters, 
where  they  were  fed  by  the  peasantry,  not  without  self- 
denial,  because  famine  and  the  horrors  of  war  had 
raised  the  value  of  a  bushel  of  wheat  to  twenty  scudi. 
Having  obtained  from  Paul  III  the  office  of  "  consistorial 
advocate,"  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  his  uncle  Pompilio, 
Prospero  began  his  diplomatic  career  as  Secretary  in 
the  Legation  of  Cardinal  Farnese  to  Charles  V,  later  was 
papal  nuncio  to  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I,  Henry  II  of 
France,  Sebastian  of  Portugal,  Philip  II  of  Spain,  and 
Queen  Catherine  Medici,  and  was  always  successful  in 
his  endeavors  to  bring  about  peace  and  good  will  among 
the  rulers  of  the  earth.  His  fame,  however,  and  the  popu- 
larity which  his  name  still  commands  in  Rome  rest  on 
a  different  basis.  He  shares  with  Jean  Nicot,  French 
ambassador  to  Lisbon,  the  glory  of  having  made  known 
the  herb  discovered  by  Acozendez  of  Toledo  in  one  of 
the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  (Tobago),  to  which  in 
France  was  given  the  name  of  "  Nicotine,"  or  "  du  Grand 
Prieur,"  or  "de  la  Reine,"  —  because  Nicot  had  pre- 
sented it  first  to  the  Great  Prior  of  Lorraine,  then  to 
Queen  Catherine,  — and  in  Italy  that  of  "Erba  Santa," 
or  "Erba  Santacroce,"  in  acknowledgment  of  Cardinal 
Prosperous  initiative.  For  over  three  centuries  Roman 
tobacconists  have  used  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  Santa- 
croce  —  a  white  cross  —  as  a  sign  over  their  shops. 

By  a  remarkable  chance,  Tivoli  was  brought  again 
into  relation  with  the  merciful  narcotic  and  its  manu- 
facture towards  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  two  of  its  citizens,  Liborio  and  Giovanni  Michilli, 
having   enriched    themselves   as    holders   of   the   state 


118    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

monopoly,  devoted  their  riches,  one  to  the  exploration 
of  Hadrian's  villa,  the  other  to  the  institution  of  a  gal- 
lery of  pictures  in  his  native  city.  Between  1739  and 
1744  Liborio  discovered  four  world-known  master- 
pieces, the  Mercury  Agoreus,  the  Flora,  the  Arpocras, 
and  an  Egyptian  god,  which  were  purchased  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Capitoline  Museum  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV. 
Giovanni,  in  his  turn,  secured  at  a  considerable  cost 
four  of  Titian's  canvases,  representing  the  four  Triumphs 
of  Petrarca,  namely  those  of  Fame,  of  Science,  of  Death, 
and  of  Christ.  All  these  works  of  art,  the  statues  as 
well  as  the  pictures,  were  engraved  on  copper  plates  by 
Frezza  and  Pomarede.  A  note  appended  to  the  proofs 
in  my  possession  states  that,  soon  after  the  death  of 
the  founder  of  the  gallery,  the  Titians  were  sold  to  an 
English  officer,  Isaac  Jamineau  ("Tabulae  originales  a 
Titiano  depictse  iuris  sunt,  currente  anno  1770,  Isaaci 
lamineau  armigeri  angli").  But  let  us  tarry  no  longer 
on  our  way  to  Gericomio. 

Ten  years  before  his  death  (1589)  Cardinal  Prospero 
had  purchased  from  Count  Giordano  Orsini  a  strip  of 
land,  four  miles  east  of  Tivoli,  on  a  sunny  slope  of  the 
iEfulse  mountains,  and  on  the  gate  of  his  new  domain 
he  had  caused  the  following  lines  of  welcome  to  be  en- 
graved:— 

HIC   TIBI    lAM   LICEAT   CVRIS    PROCVL    VRBE    SOLVTO 
DVCERE    SOLLICITAE    IVCVNDA    OBLIVIA    VITAE 

No  better  words  could  have  been  chosen  to  express  the 
feeling  of  rest  which  seems  to  emanate  from  this  place, 
and  no  better  name  for  it  could  have  been  found  by 
Cardinal  Prospero  than  THPOKOMEION,  the  hospice  or 
the  retreat  for  the  aged,  a  name  which  it  retains  to  the 
present  day.    A  medal  was  struck  for  the  occasion  in 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  119 

1579,  on  the  obverse  of  which  there  is  a  sketch  of  the 
villa  as  it  had  been  planned  in  the  mind  of  the  cardinal, 
with  a  battlemented  inctosure,  a  garden,  a  fish  pond,  a 
grove,  an  aviary,  and  other  such  accompaniments ;  but  I 
doubt  whether  the  veteran  diplomatist  had  time  to  carry 
the  plan  into  execution,  as  no  trace  of  such  structures  is 
left  on  the  grounds.  They  were  abandoned  by  the  San- 
tacroce  soon  after  the  death  of  the  founder,  sold  to  the 
Conti  dukes  of  Poli,  and  later  on  to  the  Barberini  and 
the  Pic  di  Savoia.  The  present  owner.  Prince  Salvatore 
Brancaccio,  has  done  much  to  improve  the  condition  of 
Gericomio,  and  —  a  happy  exception  to  the  rule  prevail- 
ing among  Roman  landowners  —  is  taking  excellent  care 
of  his  timber  land,  and  exacts  from  his  tenants  absolute 
respect  for  every  shrub  and  tree  growing  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  estate. 

Gericomio  stands  on  the  remains  of  a  Roman  villa, 
built  in  the  reticulated  style  of  the  age  of  Hadrian,  with 
mosaic  pavements  in  black  and  white,  bathing  apart- 
ments, water  tanks,  and  garden  terraces.  These  ruins 
were  first  excavated  by  Duke  Lotario  Conti,  who,  having 
discovered  among  them  a  portrait  head  of  Hadrian,  con- 
sidered them  to  have  formed  part  of  his  Tiburtinum. 
The  claim  of  Gericomio  to  fame  in  the  field  of  art  rests, 
however,  on  the  finding  of  the  Triton  or  marine  cen- 
taur made  in  the  time  of  Pius  VI  on  the  boundary  line  of 
the  farm  towards  Sant'  Angelo.  This  beautiful  figure, 
"  especially  well  adapted  to  give  an  idea  of  the  method 
in  which  Scopas  treated  such  marine  beings,"  is  now 
exhibited  in  the  Galleria  delle  Statue  of  the  Vatican 
Museum,  n.  253.  Its  praises  have  been  sung  by  Ennio 
Quirino  Visconti  ^  and  by  Helbig.^ 

^  Museo  Pio-Clementino,  vol.  i,  n.  xxxiv. 
2  Guide,  n.  189. 


120    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  excursion  to  Gericomio,  descending  to  it  by  the 
Carciano  road,  through  the  oHve  forest,  and  returning 
by  the  upper  or  San  Gregorio  road,  —  a  circuit  of  eight 
miles,  —  is  particularly  pleasing  to  the  antiquarian,^  as 
it  leads  him  past  the  remains  of  thirteen  ancient  villas, 
some  of  which  date  back  from  the  age  in  which  the 
polygonal  or  Pelasgian  style  of  masonry  was  still  in 
favor  with  the  Tiburtine  builders.  The  view  from  the 
narrow  neck  or  isthmus  which  divides  the  Valle  Lon- 
garina  on  the  north  from  that  of  Gericomio  on  the  south 
is  particularly  attractive,  as  it  sweeps  all  around  from 
the  snow-capped  limestone  peaks  of  the  Simbruines  to 
the  sunny  shores  of  Lavinium  and  Ostia. 

Another  attractive  excursion,  which  will  amply  repay 
the  artist  and  the  geologist  for  deviation  from  the  beaten 
track  of  tourists,  is  the  one  to  Monte  Calvo  or  Spaccato. 
The  gradient  of  the  path  leading  to  it  from  the  Porta 
Santacroce  is  so  gentle  that  the  summit  of  the  moun- 
tain (1722  feet)  is  reached  in  one  hour  without  the  least 
exertion.  The  view  over  the  giant  Apennines  of  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Anio  is  grand.  The  name  Spaccato 
is  derived  from  two  chasms  or  fissures  which  popular 
fancy  connects  with  the  rending  of  the  earth  on  the  day 
of  the  death  of  our  Redeemer.  The  first  crevice,  run- 
ning from  southeast  to  west,  is  99  feet  long,  9  wide,  and 
464  deep.  The  other  is  less  important.  Their  explora- 
tion is  difficult  because  they  do  not  plunge  vertically 
into  the  heart  of  the  mountain,  but  their  sides  bulge 

^  Motor  cars  can  reach  Gericomio  only  by  the  upper  or  San  Gregorio 
road,  diverging  to  the  right  of  it  at  the  turn  of  Colle  Cerviano.  The  de- 
scent round  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Cerviano  is  very  steep,  if  not  dan- 
gerous. The  lower  Carciano  road  is  out  of  repair  and  only  fit  for  light 
vehicles. 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  121 

and  hollow  in  and  twist  so  that  the  use  of  ladders  is  well- 
nigh  impossible. 

The  excursion  to  Horace's  Sabine  farm,  with  which 
we  bring  our  study  of  the  Tiburtine  district  to  an  end, 
can  be  easily  accomplished  by  motor  from  Rome  in  six 
hours,  from  Tivoli  in  four,  following  the  Via  Valeria  to 
Vicovaro  and  San  Comisato,  and  the  Ustica  valley  to 
Licenza.^  Let  it  be  understood  that  the  excursionist 
expecting  to  see  great  ruins  of  the  farm,  and  to  feel  the 
impression  of  Horace's  presence  in  this  out-of-the-way 
corner  of  the  earth,  is  doomed  to  disappointment.  The 
ruins  are  insignificant:  the  spring  of  Bandusia  runs  al- 
most dry;  the  Lucretilis  is  bare  of  its  green  mantle;  only 
the  general  landmarks  with  which  the  poet's  words  have 
made  us  familiar  can  be  singled  out,  —  the  valley,  the 
river,  the  vine-clad  hills,  the  frowning  peaks  of  the  Gen- 
naro  group. 

Two  learned  men  of  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  claim  the  honor  of  having  first  discovered  the 
true  site  of  the  farm,  the  French  abbe,  Bertrand  Cap- 
martin  de  Chaupy,  and  the  Tiburtine  lawyer,  Domenico 
de  Sanctis.  The  first  published  between  1767  and  1769 
three  ponderous  volumes  under  the  title  of  "  Decouverte 
de  la  maison  de  campagne  d'Horace,"  the  second, 
**  Dissertazione  sopra  la  villa  d'  Orazio,"  of  which  there 
are  three  editions,  dated  respectively  1761,  1768,  and 
1784.^   De  Sanctis  accuses  the  abbe  of  having  taken 

^  Total  distance  from  Rome,  thirty-two  miles,  from  Tivoli  fourteen. 
Licenza  can  also  be  visited  in  a  day  from  Rome  by  railway  to  Mandela, 
where  a  rickety  postal  conveyance  awaits  passengers  for  Licenza. 

^  The  first  two  volumes  of  the  Decouverte  were  printed  in  1767  by 
Zempel,  the  third  in  1769  by  Komarek.  They  form  an  excellent  topo- 
graphical cyclopaedia  of  the  Campagna,  of  Latium,  of   Campania,  and 


122    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

advantage  of  confidential  remarks  exchanged  on  the 
subject;  the  abbe  thrusts  the  accusation  back  on  his 
rival.  Perhaps  they  are  both  right;  they  may  have  ar- 
rived independently  at  the  same  conclusion;  but  evi- 
dently they  talked  too  much.  Even  to-day  it  is  not  easy 
to  see  the  right  and  the  wrong  in  this  batrachomy- 
omachy  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Gaston  Boissier,  for 
instance,  as  it  becomes  a  patriotic  Frenchman,  stands 
for  the  loquacious  abbe:  *' Aujourd'hui  on  ne  lui  conteste 
guere  la  gloire,  dont  il  etait  si  fier,  d'avoir  decouvert^  la 
maison  de  campagne  d'Horace."  I  might  say  the  same 
for  De  Sanctis,  but  it  is  not  fair  to  step  over  the  boundary 
line  of  th^  farm  from  which  the  poet  demanded  and  ob- 
tained peace,  in  a  spirit  of  controversy  and  unreasonable 
national  pride.  In  any  case,  '*much  will  be  pardoned  to 
Chaupy  because  he  loved  the  Campagna  so  well."  Like 
his  beloved  hero,  he  wanted  to  end  his  days  in  a  remote 
corner  of  this  land ;  the  selection  of  the  corner,  however, 
as  described  on  pp.  79,  80  of  his  third  volume,  does  more 
credit  to  his  feelings  than  to  his  judgment,  there  being  no 
more  lonesome,  uncomfortable,  out-of-the-way,  and  God- 
forsaken spot  than  the  Colle  degli  Arci  above  Corese, 
which  Chaupy  had  identified  with  the  site  of  the  ancient 
city  of  Cures,  the  birthplace  of  Numa.  "Une  decou- 
verte  si  certaine  et  en  meme  temps  si  importante  pour 
I'histoire  Romaine,  me  causa  une  satisfaction  si  piquante, 
que,  le  lieu  se  trouvant  avoir  une  petite  eglise  [Santa 
Maria  degli  Arci],  avec  une  habitation  et  des  terrains, 
je  pris  tout  de  suite  la  resolution  de  me  les  faire  ceder 
.  .  .  pour  y  faire  une  maison  de  campagne,  que  je  vis 
que  je  pourrois  rendre  interessante  en  Tornant  des  monu- 

of  Magna  Graecia.  De  Sanctis's  first  edition  was  published  in  1761  by 
Salomoni,  the  second  in  1768  by  Barbiellini,  the  third  at  Ravenna  in  1784 
by  Roveri 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE 


123 


Hackert's  view  of  Horace's  farm 

ments  de  la  ville  [Cures]  que  j'ai  trouve."  Like  Mr. 
Betteredge  with  his  Robinson  Crusoe,  Capmartin  pre- 
tended to  find  in  Horace  predictions,  warnings,  explana- 
tions of  the  occurrences  of  daily  life  as  well  as  of  great 
political  events  and  commotions  of  the  world.  He  Hved 
long  enough  to  witness  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, and  showed  no  surprise  at  the  bloody  days  of  the 
Terror,  because  Horace,  in  certain  passages  which  he 
was  fond  of  explaining  to  his  friends,  had  foretold  that 
precise  event. 

The  abbe's  publication  created  a  stir  even  in  artistic 
circles.  Landscape  painters,  following  in  his  footsteps, 
found  new  and  fascinating  subjects  of  study  along  the 
banks  of  the  Upper  Anio  and  of  its  main  tributary,  the 
Digentia.  The  celebrated  artist-engraver,  Georg  Hack- 
ert,  with  the  help  of  his  brother  Philipp,  produced  an 


124    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

exquisite  album  of  eleven  views  of  the  district,  dedicated 
to  Gustav  III,  king  of  Sweden,  under  the  title,  *' Carte 
generale  de  la  partie  de  la  Sabine  ou  etoit  situee  la  mai- 
son  de  campagne  d'Horace,  suivie  de  dix  vues  des  sites 
de  cette  campagne  et  de  ses  environs  nommes  dans  les 
oeuvres  d'Horace  et  relatives  aux  dissertations  que  M^. 
TAbbe  de  Santis,  M^  TAbbe  Capmartin  de  Chaupy  et 
M^.  de  Ramsay  ont  public  a  ce  sujet."  The  reader  can 
appreciate  the  beauty  of  Hackert's  work  from  the  speci- 
men here  reproduced.  It  represents  the  view  which 
Horace  must  have  enjoyed  whenever,  sitting  on  the 
banks  of  the  noisy  river,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which 
the  farm  buildings  stood,  he  turned  his  gaze  north- 
ward in  the  direction  of  Licenza  and  Civitella. 

The  road  which  leads  from  Tivoli  to  the  goal  of  our 
pilgrimage  is  practically  the  same  old  Via  Valeria  which 
the  poet  was  fond  of  following  in  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning,  on  his  way  to  Maecenas's  villa.  "  As  a  bee  darts 
for  the  fields  of  Matinum,  where  the  redolent  thyme 
grows,  so  I  follow  the  banks  of  the  Anio  to  feel  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Muses."  There  is  no  doubt  that  these 
venerable  remains  of  bridges,  of  substruction-walls,  of 
stations,  dating  from  the  first  opening  of  the  road  by  M. 
Valerius  Maximus  in  226  b.  c,  must  have  fallen  under 
his  gaze  over  and  over  again ;  and  that  he  must  have  felt 
the  same  sense  of  exhilaration  that  we  feel  when  the 
morning  mountain  breeze,  filtering  through  the  branches 
of  the  oaks  overhanging  the  road,  seems  to  vivify  mind 
and  body  and  inspire  in  us  pleasanter  and  healthier 
thoughts  and  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of 
the  road.  These  beauties  are  many  and  varied,  espe- 
cially as  we  round  the  hill  of  Castel  Madama,  the 
mediaeval  castle  of  Sacco  Muro,  the  Pelasgic  walls  of 
Vicovaro,  or  the  solitary  cloisters  of  San  Cosimato. 


THE   LAND   OF  HORACE  125 

The  property  offered  by  Maecenas  to  Horace  in  con- 
sideration of  his  poetical  services  ^  was  of  considerable 
value.  *'Part  of  it,"  says  Dr.  Tuckwell,  "he  let  off  to 
five  peasants  on  the  metayage  system;  the  rest  he  culti- 
vated himself,  employing  eight  slaves  superintended  by 
a  bailiff.  The  house,  he  tells  us,  was  simple,  with  no 
marble  pillars  or  gilded  cornices,  but  spacious  enough  to 
receive  and  entertain  a  guest  from  town,  and  to  welcome 
occasionally  his  neighbors  to  a  cheerful  evening  meal, 
where  the  talk  was  clean  and  sensible,  the  fare  beans  and 
bacon,  garden  stuff  and  chicory  and  mallows.  Around 
the  villa  was  a  garden  not  filled  with  flowers,  of  which 
in  one  of  his  Odes  (ii,  xv,  6)  he  expresses  a  dislike  as 
unremunerative,  but  laid  out  in  small  parallelograms 
of  grass,  edged  with  box  and  planted  with  clipped  horn- 
beam. The  house  was  shaded  from  above  by  a  grove  of 
ilexes  and  oaks;  lower  down  were  orchards  of  olives, 
wild  plum,  cornels,  apples.  In  the  richer  soil  of  the 
valley  he  grew  corn,  whose  harvests  never  failed  him, 
and  had  wedded  vines  to  the  elms.  Against  this  last  ex- 
periment his  bailiff  grumbled,  saying  that  the  soil  would 
grow  spice  and  pepper  as  soon  as  ripen  grapes;  but  his 
master  persisted,  and  succeeded.  Inviting  Maecenas  to 
supper,  he  offers  Sabine  wine  from  his  own  estate  (Odes, 
I,  XX,  1).  .  .  .  There  he  sauntered  day  by  day,  watched 
his  laborers,  working  sometimes,  like  Ruskin  at  Hink- 
sey,  awkwardly,  to  their  amusement,  with  his  own 
hands ;  strayed  now  and  then  into  the  lichened  rocks  and 

^  Maecenas  may  have  made  the  grant  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  as 
well  as  his  own.  We  owe  to  Augustus  the  fourth  book  of  the  Odes^  published 
in  the  year  13  b.  c,  ten  years  after  the  appearance  of  books  ii  and  iii. 
This  end  was  secured  by  intrusting  to  Horace  the  task  of  composing  the 
Century  Hymn  {Carmen  Sceculare^  b.  c.  17)  and  the  song  for  the  Vindeli- 
cian  victories  of  his  kinsmen  Tiberius  and  Drusus. 


126    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

forest  wilds  beyond  his  farm,  surprised  there  by  a  huge 
wolf,  who  luckily  fled  from  his  presence  (Odes,  i,  xxii,  9) ; 
or  —  most  enjoyable  of  all  —  lay  beside  the  spring  of 
Bandusia  with  a  book  or  a  friend  of  either  sex. 

"  Of  the  beauty oi  his  home  he  speaks  always  modestly; 
its  charm  he  is  never  weary  of  extolling,  because  it 
yielded  calm,  tranquillity,  repose,  making,  as  Words- 
worth says,  the  very  thought  of  country  life  a  thought 
of  refuge;  and  that  was  what,  so  long  in  populous  city 
pent,  he  longed  to  find  and  found.  It  was  his  home, 
where  he  could  possess  his  soul,  could  be  self-centred 
and  serene.  This,  says  Ruskin,  is  the  true  nature  of 
Home:  it  is  the  Place  of  Peace." 

Note.  I  have  purposely  abstained  from  giving  an  account  of  the  so- 
called  remains  of  the  farm  because  it  is  not  possible  to  identify  them. 
Even  granted  that  the  farmhouse  should  have  been  preserved  during  the 
four  centuries  of  the  empire,  in  memory  of  the  poet's  sojourn  in  this  valley 
(of  which  fact  we  have  no  evidence),  the  remains  attributed  lo  it  by  local 
tradition  are  too  faint  and  vague  to  repay  the  fatigue  and  the  trouble  of  a 
pilgrimage.  They  consist  of  a  piece  of  mosaic  pavement  in  black  and 
white,  of  geometrical  pattern,  the  design  of  which  is  given  by  Hackert  in 
the  first  sheet  of  his  album.  Around  this  poor  relic  there  are  vestiges  of 
three  terraces  of  a  much  later  date  than  the  Augustan  era,  and  of  such 
magnificence  that  they  could  not  possibly  be  reconciled  with  the  idea  of  a 
farm.  These  vestiges  are  to  be  seen  on  a  spur  of  the  Colle  Rotondo  (Lucre- 
tilis .'')  on  the  left  of  the  road  ascending  to  Licenza,  five  hundred  yards 
before  reaching  the  first  house.  The  plateau  stands  1320  feet  above  the 
sea.  The  names  of  many  places  in  the  neighborhood  seem  to  recall  those 
of  the  Horatian  age:  gli  Orasini  or  Oratini,  given  to  a  spring  higher  up  on 
the  same  spur  of  the  mountain;  la  Rustica,  given  to  a  piece  of  land  near 
the  "  UsticcB  cvhantis  saxa,"  etc.  Another  group  of  ruins  is  marked,  in 
Hackert's  bird's-eye  view  of  the  valley,  with  the  name  '*  Ruines  de  Bains," 
much  nearer  the  village  of  Roccagiovane;  and  here,  a  little  above  the 
country  church  of  Santa  Maria  delle  Case,  the  late  explorer  of  the  Cam- 
pagna,  Pietro  Rosa,  places  the  site  of  the  farm,  in  opposition  to  Sir  William 
Gell  and  Nibby,  who  favor  Licenza  and  the  identification  suggested  by 
Chaupy. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    LAND    OF    HADRIAN 

HADRIAN'S  biographers  have  left  scarcely  any 
record  of  the  construction  of  a  villa  at  Tibur, 
although  it  was  considered  the  most  magnifi- 
cent in  the  world.  Aurelius  Victor  ^  only  says  that 
Hadrian,  on  his  return  from  his  first  transcontinental 
journey,  in  a.  d.  125,  having  settled  the  affairs  of  the 
empire  and  intrusted  the  cares  of  government  to  iElius 
Caesar, ♦retired  to  his  villa,  where  "ut  beatis  locupleti- 
bus  mos" — as  is  the  custom  with  men  favored  by 
fortune  —  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  building  of  pal- 
aces, to  the  enlargement  of  his  artistic  collections,  and 
to  luxurious  and  profligate  habits.  The  author  of  the 
"  Vita  "  adds  (chapter  26)  that  the  august  architect,  to 
perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  the  places  and  edifices 
which  had  impressed  him  most  during  his  journeys,  had 
reproduced  in  the  villa  the  Lyceum,  the  Academy,  the 
Pry tanseum,  and  the  Pcecile  from  Athens ;  the  Canopus 
from  the  old  seaport  of  the  Delta;  the  Lower  Regions 
from  the  fancies  of  the  poets  concerning  the  home  of 
future  life;  and  even  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  that  jewel  of 
Thessalian  landscape.  To  this  list  may  be  added  a 
Greek  and  a  Latin  theatre,  an  odeum,  a  stadium,  a  gym- 
nasium, the  Greek  and  Latin  libraries,  the  imperial  pal- 
ace, the  baths,  and  the  quarters  for  guests  and  for  the 
body-guard.  The  remains  of  all  these  edifices  can  easily 
be  identified.   The  other  names — Cynosargus,  Pisianat- 

*  De  CcBS.,  xiv. 


128    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

teum,  (Ecocorinthia,  Heliocarainus,  Natatorium,  Tower 
of  Timon,  etc. — which  occur  in  the  maps  of  Ligorio 
and  Piranesi  are  fanciful  and  undeserving  considera- 
tion. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  Hadrian, 
familiar  as  he  was  with  the  best-known  views  in  the 
empire,  a  lover  of  mountains,  and  an  accomplished 
artist,  should  have  chosen  for  his  retreat  a  tract  of 
country  bately  three  hundred  feet  above  the  sea-level, 
with  no  commanding  view,  hot  in  summer,  chilly  in 
winter,  damp  in  other  seasons,  within  the  reach  of 
malaria,  when  he  might  have  followed  the  example  of 
Trajan,  who  had  built  his  shooting  lodge  on  the  Arci- 
nazzo  Pass,  at  the  altitude  of  2755  feet,  or  of  Nero, 
who  had  transformed  a  wild  gorge  of  the  Simbruine 
mountains  at  Subiaco  into  a  beautiful  park  with  an 
artificial  lake,  winding  for  a  mile  through  the  over- 
hanging cliffs.  Some  have  suggested  that  the  ^lians 
did  own  a  family  estate  on  this  hill,  and  in  proof  of 
this  surmise  point  to  certain  walls  of  **opus  incertum" 
(a  style  of  masonry  given  up  about  the  Augustan  age) 
which  may  still  be  seen  near  the  Casino  Fede.  But 
Hadrian's  ancestors  came  from  Spain,  and  their  home- 
stead was  at  Italica,  the  old  Seville,  the  birthplace  of 
Trajan,  of  Silius  Italicus,  and  later  of  Theodosius. 
Others  have  attributed  the  choice  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Sulphur  Springs,  of  which  the  Emperor  may  have 
been  in  need.  All  this,  however,  does  not  justify  the 
selection  of  a  site  which  was  at  that  time  commanded 
by  a  hundred  private  villas,  all  healthily  and  pleasantly 
situated  on  the  slopes  of  the  Catillus  and  of  the  hill  of 
^fulse,  from  the  terraces  of  which  the  eye  gazed  over 
the  Campagna  as  far  as  Rome,  and  beyond  it  to  the  sea. 
The  consular  dates  impressed  on  the  bricks  and  roof 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  129 

tiles  show  that  the  Tiburtinum  Hadriani  was  begun  in 
A.  D.  125,  and  that  the  work  lasted  the  whole  of  the 
ten  years  the  Emperor  was  abroad.  After  his  return  in 
136  he  retired  to  his  new  possession^  and  continued  to 
beautify  it  with  new  buildings,  masterpieces  of  painting 
and  sculpture,  and  water-works,  until  he  was  struck  by 
fatal  illness,  and  removed  to  Baise,  where  he  died  on 
the  tenth  of  July  in  the  year  136.  This  many-gifted 
man  —  architect,  painter,  engineer,  landscape  gardener, 
mathematician,  strategist,  sportsman,  jurist,  moun- 
taineer, poet,  linguist,  erudite,  explorer,  statesman, 
leader  of  armies,  and  ruler  of  men  —  had  been  born  in 
Rome,  on  January  25,  a.  d.  77,  in  a  house  of  the  twelfth 
ward.  Piscina  Publica,  which  became  in  due  course  of 
time  a  historical  building  and  was  shown  to  tourists 
under  the  name  of  "Privata  Hadriani."  His  father, 
^lius  Afer,  hailed  from  Italica,  and  his  mother,  Domitia 
Paulina,  from  Cadiz.  How  a  Spanish  family  of  good 
standing  in  its  native  country  happened  to  keep  house 
in  Rome  is  easily  explained  by  the  fact  that  Maryllinus, 
Hadrian's  grandfather,  had  been  made  a  senator  of  the 
empire  by  his  kinsman  Trajan,  and  that  iElia  Paulina, 
Hadrian's  sister,  had  married  another  resident  in  the 
capital,  L.  Julius  Ursus  Servianus,  thrice  consul,  whose 
portrait  bust,  made  at  the  expense  of  his  intendant, 
Crescens,  has  found  its  way  into  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton's house  in  London.  Considering  the  remarkable 
place  which  these  Spaniards  have  gained  in  history,  as 
well  as  in  the  field  of  art,  and  considering,  furthermore, 
that  the  complicated  relationship  between  the  various 
members  makes  it  difficult  for  the  reader  to  remember 
their  individual  position  in  the  family  line,  I  trust  that 
the  following  genealogical  sketch  will  not  be  considered 
out  of  place. 


130     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

^lius  Maryllinus,  senator 

iElius  Afer  married  to  Domitia  Paulina their  cousins 

I  M.  Ulpius  Traianus  and  Ulpia  Marciana 

'  Matidia 

i  I  .  I 

iElia  Paulina  married  to  Servianus    iElius  Hadrianus  married  to  Sabina 

None  of  these  ladies,  Sabina  excepted,  could  be  called 
a  Spanish  beauty.  Judging  from  their  likenesses  as 
expressed  in  busts,  gems,  medals,  and  portrait  statues, 
their  best  claim  to  feminine  attention  rested  on  their 
extraordinary  headdress,  an  audacious  and  complicated 
affair,  the  possibility  of  which  can  only  be  explained  by 
admitting  the  use  of  a  frame  of  wire.  Their  manners 
and  their  conversation  must  also  have  betrayed  their 
"provincialism."  When  young  Hadrian  was  charged 
for  the  first  time  by  his  imperial  cousin  to  deliver  a 
message  to  the  Senate,  his  pronunciation  of  Latin 
struck  the  Conscript  Fathers  as  so  curious  that  they 
could  not  help  laughing  in  his  face.  The  iElians  and 
the  Ulpians,  however,  were  a  stern  race,  not  to  be 
daunted  by  such  contretemps.  Instead  of  resenting  the 
impertinence  of  the  Senate,  the  young  man  took  occasion 
from  it  to  get  rid  of  his  native  accent,  and  succeeded  so 
admirably  in  his  task  that,  as  the  biographer  says,  he 
mastered  the  niceties  of  Latin  eloquence  '*  usque  ad 
summam  peritiam  et  fecundiam."  Greek  letters,  too, 
attracted  him  to  such  a  degree  that  at  fifteen  he  was 
already  known  among  his  fellow  students  at  Italica 
under  the  nickname  of  Grseculus.  We  may  also  notice 
among  his  national  peculiarities  that  he  was  the  first 
Roman  emperor  to  wear  a  beard.  As  regards  his  ac- 
tivity and  restless  mood,  it  is  enough  to  note  that  in  the 
few  years  which  elapsed  between  his  recall  from  Ital- 
ica and  his  adoption  by  Trajan  he  travelled  through 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  131 

Moesia,  as  commander  of  the  second  legion  Adjutrix; 
Upper  Germany,  as  bearer  of  the  congratulations  of  the 
army   to    Trajan   on   his   adoption   by  Nerva;  Dacia, 


Portrait  bust  of  the  Empress  Plotina,  the  wife  of  Trajan, 
showing  the  extraordinary  headdress  worn  by  the  ladies 
of  the  Ulpian  and  -^Uan  families 

as  commander  of  the  first  legion  Minervia;  Parthia,  as 
leader  of  the  campaign  against  Chosroes;  Pannonia 
and  Syria,  as  governor.  It  was  in  this  last  province  that 
on  August  11,  118,  he  received  the  news  of  Trajan's 
death  at  Tarsus,  and  of  his  own  consequent  accession  to 


132    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

the  throne.  Seven  years  later  we  find  him  established 
on  the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano,  to  superintend  the  con- 
struction of  his  favorite  villa. 

The  later  history  of  this  place  is  not  known.  The 
discovery  of  a  bust  of  Antoninus  Pius  in  1883,  in  the 
great  hall  of  the  larger  palace,  and  of  busts  or  heads 
of  Faustina  the  Elder  (the  bust  in  the  Rotunda  of  the 
Vatican,  No.  541),  Marcus  Aurelius,  Lucius  Verus,  and 
Elagabalus,  made  in  the  year  1770  in  the  Pantanello, 
show  that  the  villa  was  occupied  by  the  successors  of 
Hadrian,  at  all  events  till  the  first  quarter  of  the  third 
century.  But  we  can  reach  an  even  later  date.  The 
biographer  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  c.  30,  says  that  Ze- 
nobia  was  banished  by  Aurelian  into  the  territory  of 
Tivoli,  in  a  place  '*not  far  from  Hadrian's  palace"; 
words  which  prove  that  the  villa  had  not  lost  its  name, 
and  was  kept  up  in  good  condition  at  the  time  of  Con- 
stantine.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  following  observation. 
While  the  sculptures  of  the  villa  are  all  contemporary 
with  the  golden  age  of  Greek-Roman  art  character- 
istic of  Hadrian's  reign,  and  show  no  trace  of  later 
restorations  (a  proof  of  the  care  which  was  taken  of  the 
crown  property),  the  buildings  and  their  architectural 
ornamentations  show  evidence  of  having  been  largely 
restored  towards  the  end  of  the  third  or  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century.  A  case  in  point  can  be  found  in 
the  so-called  Marine  Theatre,  the  most  enigmatical 
structure  of  the  villa,  the  aspect  of  which  can  be  better 
understood  from  the  illustration  on  p.  137  than  from  any 
description  in  words.  It  is  a  circular  colonnade  of  the 
Ionic  order,  opening  on  a  canal  fifteen  feet  wide  and  four 
deep,  lined  with  slabs  of  Carrara  marble.  The  canal  in 
its  turn  incloses  a  round  island,  covered  with  buildings 
so  complicated  in  their  plan  as  to  baffle  description. 


THE  BEST  EXISTING  PORTRAIT  BUST  OF  HADRIAN 
Showing  the  beard  worn  for  the  first  time  by  a  Roman  Emperor 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  135 

In  two  different  places  at  the  bottom  of  the  canal  traces 
can  be  seen  of  a  mechanical  contrivance  which  revolved 
on  pivots  or  hinges  fixed  on  the  side  of  the  island,  while 
the  outer  end  ran  on  wheels  in  a  groove  describing  a 
quarter  of  a  circle.  Antiquarians  have  connected  these 
remains  with  sluices  for  the  regulation  of  the  water  in 
the  canal ;  but  this  explanation  is  not  satisfactory.  It  is 
simply  a  case  of  a  font  tournant,  by  the  manoeuvring  of 
which  communication  with  the  island  could  be  opened 
or  closed  at  will.  These  facts  have  led  me  to  consider 
the  island  as  a  place  in  which  the  Emperor  could  find 
absolute  seclusion;  and  as  his  favorite  occupation  was 
painting  and  modelling  in  clay,  I  have  no  doubt  that  he 
used  the  island  as  a  studio.  About  the  end  of  the  third 
century,  when  the  memory  of  the  imperial  artist  who 
had  cherished  the  white  marble  island  above  all  other 
retreats  of  the  villa  had  faded  away,  the  revolving 
bridge  was  abandoned,  and  a  permanent  one,  of  rough 
masonry,  was  substituted  in  its  place.  I  may  also  re- 
mark that  brick  stamps  with  the  well-known  seal  of  the 
kilns  of  Diocletian  and  Constantine  were  found  in  the 
excavations  of  1878. 

It  has  been  said  that  Constantine  began  to  despoil 
the  villa  in  order  to  remove  the  pictures  and  statues  to 
his  new  capital;  that  Totila  took  up  his  quarters  there 
in  544,  with  his  horde  of  barbarian  plunderers,  and  that 
in  the  eighth  century  Aistulf  the  Langobard  did  the 
same.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  Hadrian's  villa 
supplied  the  marbles  and  columns  for  the  churches 
and  houses  of  Tivoli,  and  that  the  statues,  friezes,  and 
reliefs  were  smashed  to  pieces  and  thrown  into  the 
lime-kilns. 

All  this  is  simply  a  matter  of  conjecture,  except  as  re- 
gards the  lime-kilns,  about  which  there  is  unfortunately 


136    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

no  room  for  doubt.  It  is  certain  that  by  the  time  of  the 
visit  of  Pius  II  in  1461  the  site  was  almost  in  its  present 
condition.  "Everything  is  made  shapeless  by  age," 
he  observes;  "ivy  covers  those  walls  which  formerly 
were  hung  with  historical  tapestries  and  draperies 
worked  in  gold;  thorns  and  brambles  fill  the  courts 
where  tribunes  clothed  in  purple  sat  in  council,  and 
serpents  live  in  the  chambers  of  queens;  so  transient  is 
the  nature  of  human  things."  ^ 

The  villa  was  constantly  and  shamefiilly  plundered 
from  the  time  of  Alexander  VI  (1492-1503)  till  the 
middle  of  last  century.  Any  one  wishing  to  know  the 
number  and  nature  of  the  sculptures  found  almost  year 
by  year,  and  now  dispersed  all  over  Europe,  should 
consult  Agostino  Penna's  "  Viaggio  pittorico  della  Villa 
Adriana  "  and  Hermann  Winnefeld's  '*Die  Villa  des  Ha- 
drian bei  Tivoli."  The  most  successful  excavations  were 
obviously  those  of  the  sixteenth  century.  These  were 
made  in  an  almost  virgin  soil.  Alexander  VI  is  said  to 
have  discovered  in  the  Odeum  the  group  of  the  Nine 
Muses  now  in  Madrid;^  Cardinal  Alessandro  Farnese 
a  frieze  with  cupids  riding  on  dolphins,  in  the  Round 
Island  (1535);  Cardinal  Ippolito  d'Este  many  hundred 
works  of  art  in  the  Xystus,  the  imperial  palace,  and  the 
thermae  (1550-1572);  Cardinal  Gianvincenzo  Caraffa  a 
Diana,  an  Atalanta,  and  a  Fortune,  in  the  imperial 
palace  (1540);  Cardinal  Marcello  Cervini  a  marble 
frieze,  in  the  home  garden   (1550);  and  Marcantonio 

^  Commentaries,  ed.  1584,  p.  251. 

^  This  group  was  first  removed  to  the  Belvedere  Garden  in  the  Vati- 
can; then  to  the  museum  of  Cardinal  Rodolfo  Pio  di  Carpi  on  the  Quirinal. 
It  was  purchased  at  a  later  period  by  Queen  (Christina  of  Sweden,  who  com- 
missioned the  sculptor  Ercole  Ferrata  to  restore  the  missing  parts;  and  in 
1689  by  Duke  Livio  Odescalchi,  whose  heirs  sold  it  to  King  Philip  V  of 
Spain. 


u 


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THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  139 

Palosi,  a  magistrate  of  great  repute  at  the  time  of  Pope 
Paul  III,  a  fragmentary  group  of  horses  on  the  western 
slope  of  the  Vale  of  Tempe.  Ulisse  Aldovrandi,  the 
antiquarian  from  Bologna  who  examined  this  find  in 
1551,  after  one  of  the  horses  had  been  almost  completely 
put  together  again,  calls  it  "a  most  beautiful  steed,  in 
high  relief,  which  seems  to  stumble  and  fall  forward  — 
lavoro  meraviglioso  e  degno/'  The  illustration  on  p.  140 
shows  what  the  seventeenth  century  restorers  were  ca- 
pable of  doing  with  the  poor  animal.  The  falling  horse 
from  a  decorative  quadriga  has  become  a  Quintus  Cur- 
tius  leaping  into  the  chasm,  one  of  the  most  admired 
seventeenth-century  impostures  of  the  salone  in  the 
Borghese  Museum. 

Under  the  pontificate  of  Urban  VIII,  in  the  year  1630, 
the  Bulgarini  family,  who  had  purchased  from  the  heirs 
of  Bindo  Altoviti  the  site  of  the  Odeum  and  of  the 
Academy,  discovered  certain  marble  candelabra  and 
figures  of  gods  and  heroes.  The  same  family  —  known 
for  having  first  turned  the  noblest  and  richest  halls  of  the 
Villa  d'Este  into  granaries  —  damaged  the  Odeum  in 
1738  to  such  an  extent  as  to  rouse  the  wrath  of  Cardinal 
Silvio  Valenti,  to  whom  the  care  of  the  antiquarian  de- 
partment was  at  that  time  intrusted.  Giuseppe  Pannini, 
the  architect,  was  sent  to  report,  which  he  did  in  a  splen- 
did form  by  means  of  three  descriptive  plates  (engraved 
by  Fidanza),  rich  in  particulars  interesting  to  both  archi- 
tect and  archaeologist,  because,  granted  that  this  building 
was  an  odeum,  we  are  able  to  determine  from  its  plan 
that  of  another  building  of  the  same  name,  erected  in 
Rome  near  the  Stadium  (Piazza  Navona)  by  Domitian. 
The  reason  for  the  erection  of  these  last  named  spectacu- 
lar places,  the  Stadium  and  the  Odeum,  must  be  sought 
in  the  contemporary  institution  of  the  Agon  Cajpitolinus, 


140    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

a  musical,  poetical,  and  athletic  competition,  which  was 
to  be  contested  by  champions  from  every  land  of  the 
empire  on  each  fifth  year,  counting  from  December  14, 
86  A.  D.   The  musical  section  included,  besides  singing 


The  falling  horse  from  a  quadriga  discovered  in  the  Vale  of 
Tempe  and  transformed  into  a  group  of  Quintus  Curtius 
leaping  into  the  chasm 


and  playing,  the  art  of  verse-making  and  improvisation. 
In  the  third  section  there  was  also  a  race  for  girls  in  the 
Stadium,  a  most  interesting  spectacle,  if,  as  we  feel  in- 
clined to  imagine,  it  took  place,  in  the  time  of  Hadrian, 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  141 

in  the  stadium  of  the  villa,  under  the  shade  of  its  great 
trees.  The  Bulgarini  were  not  punished  for  the  spolia- 
tion of  the  Odeum.  Perhaps  Cardinal  Valenti  thought 
they  had  already  suffered  sufficient  chastisement  in 
1736.    It  came  about  in  this  way. 

In  the  winter  of  1736-37  Monsignor  Alessandro  Furi- 
etti,  a  young  prelate  from  Bergamo,  fond  of  antiquarian 
research,  had  obtained  from  the  Bulgarini  the  right  of 
excavating  their  property,  not  on  the  usual  basis  of  a 
division  of  the  spoils  in  halves,  but  on  the  payment  of  a 
modest  fee  once  for  all.  Chance  favored  him,  and  before 
the  season  was  over  he  had  secured  three  masterpieces  — 
the  **  Mosaic  of  the  Doves,"  a  perfect  copy  of  the  original 
by  Sosus  of  Pergamus, described  by  Pliny  (xxxvi,  26), and 
the  two  Centaurs  of  bigio  morato,  the  work  of  two  emi- 
nent artists  from  Aphrodisias,  Aristeus  and  Papias.  It 
is  said  that  these  rich  finds  strained  the  relations  between 
Furietti  and  Pope  Benedict  XIV,  who,  in  his  eagerness 
to  enrich  the  newly  founded  Capitoline  Museum,  had 
perhaps  anticipated  the  possibility  of  a  gift  from  the 
ambitious  prelate.  The  fact  is  that  so  long  as  Benedict 
ruled  in  the  Vatican  Furietti  did  not  obtain  his  promo- 
tion to  cardinalship  to  which  he  was  otherwise  entitled. 
Clement  XIII,  who  gave  him  the  much-coveted  purple 
hat  on  September  24,  1759,  scored  no  better  success. 
The  Centaurs  of  Aristeus  and  Papias  and  the  Doves  of 
Sosus  remained  in  the  Furietti  house  until  the  death  of 
their  discoverer,  when  they  were  finally  purchased  from 
the  heirs  for  the  sum  of  sixteen  thousand  scudi  and 
placed  in  the  Capitoline  Museum. 

To  come  back  to  the  chronological  description  of  dis- 
coveries in  the  villa,  I  must  mention  those  made  in  the 
time  of  Innocent  X  (1644-1655)  by  a  stone-cutter  named 
Baratta,  who  dug  out,  among  other  curiosities,  a  stair- 


142    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

case  having  steps  of  alabaster  and  side  walls  ornamented 
with  panels  of  tarsia-work  in  a  metal  frame. 

The  name  of  Count  Giuseppe  Fede  is  the  one  most 
often  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  fate  of  the  villa 


A  corner  of  the  stadium  in  Hadrian's  villa 

in  the  eighteenth  century.  Having  purchased  the  north- 
ern section  of  it,  which  extends  from  the  present  en- 
trance gate  to  the  Canopus,  he  explored  in  a  desultory 
way  the  Greek  theatre,  the  Nymphseum,  and  the  Pales- 


ONi:  OF  THE  GIANT  CYPRESSES  PLANTED  BY  COUNT  GIUSEPPE 
FEDE  IN  THE  FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  145 

tra,  bringing  to  light  many  famous  marbles  such  as  the 
two  female  hermse  (n.  537  and  538  in  the  Rotunda  of 
the  Vatican  Museum)  which  are  supposed  to  personify 
Tragedy  and  Comedy;  a  group  of  Cupid  and  Psyche, 
and  the  Satyr  in  rosso  antico,  with  eyes  of  colored 
glass,  now  in  the  "Gabinetto  delle  maschere,"  n.  432. 
But  the  best  title  of  the  Fede  family  to  the  gratitude  of 
all  friends  of  Hadrian's  villa  lies  in  their  having  planted 
along  the  boundary  line  of  their  estate,  and  on  either 
side  of  the  central  avenue,  a  double  row  of  cypresses, 
the  most  magnificent  specimens  in  Italy.  It  seems  to  us 
who  love  the  villa  above  all  other  sites  of  the  district  of 
Tibur,  that  were  it  to  lose  this  noble  crown  of  ever- 
greens, all  our  interest  in  it  would  die  out.  And  this  is 
not  an  idle  fear;  such  misdeeds  have  been  committed  in 
these  last  years  against  trees  in  Rome  and  the  Cam- 
pagna,  that  even  the  improbable  may  be  expected  to 
happen  in  this  line.  In  the  twenty  years  during  which 
Hadrian's  villa  was  under  my  care,  such  pains  were 
taken  to  keep  the  olive  grove  in  a  wholesome  condition 
that  we  could  almost  cover  the  expense  of  repairs  and 
excavations  with  the  proceeds  of  the  crop.  I  remember 
especially  a  venerable  old  giant,  the  pride  of  the  Oliveto 
di  Roccabruna  (which  represents  now  what  in  Hadri- 
an's time  were  the  gardens  of  the  Academy),  known 
under  the  name  of  "I'Albero  Bello,"  which  would  yield 
in  good  seasons  as  much  as  ten  ordinary  trees,^  and  we 
loved  the  grove  so  that,  having  once  to  decide  whether 
it  would  not  be  expedient  to  cut  down  a  young  tree 
which  prevented  us  from  laying  bare  a  mosaic  floor  near 
the  *'Cortile  delle  Biblioteche,"  we  gave  up  the  search 

*  Bulgarini  mentions  a  crop  of  nine  hundred  and  twenty  litres  of  ripe 
berries,  equal  to  twenty-six  bushels.  Notizie  intorno  la  citta  di  Tivoli, 
Rome,  Zampi,  1848. 


146    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMxiN  CAMPAGNA 

rather  than  disturb  the  sapling  dear  to  Minerva.  Alas! 
such  neglect  of  the  '* green  mantle"  of  the  villa  has  been 
shown  in  late  years  that  many  hundred  trees  have  been 
allowed  to  die  in  the  treacherous  embrace  of  the  ivy 
which  is  sucking  their  life  out,  or  by  the  drying  up  of 
the  roots  for  want  of  proper  tilling.  The  Albero  Bello 
is  still  in  a  fair  condition;  and  looking  at  its  noble 
crown  of  boughs,  bending  under  the  weight  of  the  juicy 
berries,  we  recall  the  anecdote  told  by  Pliny  the  Elder 
(xvi,  91)  of  a  curious  case  of  tree-worship  :  "There  is 
a  hill  named  Corne,  not  far  from  the  city  of  Tusculum, 
crowned  by  a  cluster  of  beeches,  sacred  to  Diana  from 
immemorial  times.  One  of  the  trees,  the  healthiest  and 
largest,  has  been  venerated  in  our  own  times  by  Pas- 
sienus  Crispus,  husband  of  Agrippina  the  elder,  step- 
father of  Nero,  twice  consul,  orator,  who  used  to  kiss 
and  embrace  its  trunk,  and  lie  under  its  shade  and  pour 
libations  over  its  roots.  The  tree  beloved  by  Passienus 
can  be  identified  by  its  proximity  to  an  ilex,  thirty-four 
feet  in  girth,  from  the  roots  of  which  spring  ten  trunks, 
each  forming  a  tree  of  extraordinary  size.  This  ilex  is 
a  forest  in  itself." 

The  period  of  the  naturalization  of  the  olive  on  the 
slopes  of  the  Catillus  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Anio 
cannot  be  determined;  the  species  was  perhaps  im- 
ported by  the  Pelasgians.  In  Roman  times,  however, 
olive  plantations  cannot  have  been  extensive,  consider- 
ing that  the  sunny  slopes  over  which  they  now  spread 
and  prosper  were  at  that  time  occupied  by  gardens  and 
pleasure  grounds.  With  the  abandonment  and  destruc- 
tion of  the  villas  the  oil-making  industry  gained  ground. 
In  a  document  of  the  year  945,  published  by  Bruzza  in 
his  "  Regesto  Tiburtino,"  several  olive  yards  are  regis- 
tered among  the  rural  properties  of  the  bishopric.    In 


ANCIENT  OLIVE  TREES  IN  THE 


NJ>  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  147 

the  year  1556,  when  a  first  census  was  taken,  75,000 
were  growing  within  the  municipal  jurisdiction ;  103,045 
were  numbered  in  1739;  126,000  in  1845,  150,000  at  the 
present  day.  The  trees  live  on  a  belt  of  the  limestone 
formation,  from  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  feet  above 
sea-level.  The  line  above  which  olive-growing  would 
not  prove  remunerative  can  be  seen  even  from  Rome, 
the  dark  hue  of  the  grove  describing  a  perfectly  hori- 
zontal line  against  the  white  ground  of  the  rocks.  Nat- 
uralists have  distinguished  seventeen  varieties  of  trees 
and  berries.  The  most  impressive  section  of  the  grove 
lies  in  the  direction  of  Gericomio;  it  contains  worthy 
rivals  of  the  Albero  Bello;  one  especially,  near  the 
"voltata  delle  Carrozze,'*  forming  a  mass  of  green  a 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  circumference.  The  Tibur- 
tine  chroniclers  assign  to  it  an  age  of  seventeen  hun- 
dred years,  which  is  obviously  an  exaggeration ;  but  I 
have  no  doubt  that  this  veteran  has  seen  more  history 
than  many  of  the  monuments  which  form  the  pride  of 
the  city.^ 

The  year  1769  marks  the  beginning  of  the  excava- 
tions by  the  Scotch  painter  Gavin  Hamilton.  Having 
been  informed  by  a  peasant  of  the  existence  of  certain 
objects  of  value  at  the  bottom  of  the  Pantanello, —  a 
pool  or  swamp  in  the  lowest  part  of  the  Vale  of  Tempe, 
—  Hamilton,  first  drawing  off  the  water  by  means  of  a 
drain,  found  imbedded  in  mud  "a  prodigious  number  of 
fragments  of  statuary,  heads,  hands,  and  feet,  also  vases, 
bas-reliefs,  candelabra,  figures  of  animals,  columns  of 
giallo  alabaster  and  of  colored  breccia,  not  to  mention 
capitals,  bases,  pedestals,  friezes,  and  broken  columns 
which  were  left  where  he  found  them."  ^    The  search 

^  See  also  the  trees  in  the  double-page  illustration  here  given. 
^  Piranesi. 


148  WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

was  taken  up  again  in  1780  by  the  brothers  Giambattista 
and  Francesco  Piranesi,  in  partnership  with  the  owner 
of  the  pond.  The  best  works  of  art  from  the  Pantanello 
have  been  illustrated  by  that  celebrated  engraver  in  the 
volume  entitled  "  Vasi  e  Candelabri." 

The  excavations  above  described,  and  a  few  subse- 
quent ones  made  in  the  last  century  without  special  suc- 
cess, have  yielded  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  works 
of  art,  including  statues,  busts,  reliefs,  mosaic  pictures, 
candelabra,  vases,  and  fountains,  a  catalogue  of  which 
was  published  by  Winnefeld  in  1895/  These  works  un- 
fortunately have  been  scattered  to  the  four  winds,  and 
the  student  wishing  to  acquaint  himself  personally  with 
the  artistic  decoration  of  the  villa,  and  with  the  evolu- 
tion of  sculpture  in  the  best  period  of  the  Greco-Roman 
school,  must  undertake  a  pilgrimage  through  every  coun- 
try in  Europe,  including  Italy  (the  Vatican,  Capitoline, 
National,  Borghese,  and  Albani  museums),  France  (the 
Louvre),  England  (the  British  Museum  and  Lans- 
downe  House),  Prussia  (the  Antiquarium,  Berlin),  Swe- 
den (Stockholm),  Saxony  (Dresden),  and  Russia  (St. 
Petersburg  and  Pavlovsk). 

I  have  said  that  the  largest  and  best  section  of  the 
villa  was  purchased  about  the  year  1730  by  Count  Fede, 
to  whose  plantations  of  pines  and  cypresses  the  place 
owes  its  present  picturesqueness.  In  1803  it  was  bought 
by  Pius  VII  for  his  nephew,  Braschi-Onesti,  whom  he 
had  endowed  with  a  dukedom.  Pietro  Rosa,  who  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  antiquities  for  the  province 
of  Rome  at  the  revolution  of  1870,  acquired  for  the  state 
the  Braschi  property  as  well  as  the  olive  grove  of  Roc- 
cabruna,  and  began  a  systematic  excavation.  The  work 
was  carried  on  from  year  to  year  until  1890,  resulting  in 

^  Die  Villa  des  Hadrian  bei  Tivoli,  Berlin,  Reimer,  1895,  pp.  150-168. 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


149 


A  hall  near  the  Greek  and  Latin  libraries,  excavated  by  the  author  in  1885 


the  laying  bare  of  the  most  important  buildings,  except 
the  Canopus,  the  Thermae,  and  the  Stadium,  which  still 
lie  buried  under  their  cover  of  earth.  Since  1890,  how- 
ever, the  villa  has  been  practically  abandoned,  and  it 
will  soon  be  deprived  of  the  harmonious  combination 
of  picturesqueness  and  archaeological  interest  unless  a 
change  takes  place  in  the  policy  of  the  administration. 

I  shall  not  accompany  the  visitor  in  his  inspection  of 
the  single  ruins;  they  are  still  beautiful,  apart  from  their 
classic  name  and  purpose,  and  they  are  so  exquisitely  set 
in  their  frame  of  green  that  archaeological  information 
about  them  seems  out  of  place.  The  information  is  sup- 
plied, at  all  events,  by  guidebooks,  the  latest  of  which  is 
accompanied  by  an  excellent  map,  from  the  survey  made 
in  1906  by  the  Royal  School  of  Engineers.^    In  beginning 

*  La  villa  Adriana,  Guida  e  descrizione  compilatadal  Prof.  R.  Lanciani, 


150    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

his  walk  the  visitor  will  do  well  to  remember,  first,  that 
Hadrian's  original  structures  are  all  of  opus  reticulatum, 
made  of  prisms  of  reddish  tufa  quarried  in  the  Vale  of 
Tempe;  secondly,  that  the  apparent  confusion  in  the 
grouping  of  the  various  edifices  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  connecting  links  between  them,  such  as  paths,  gar- 
dens, terraces,  canals,  lawns,  have  disappeared;  thirdly, 
that  the  feeling  of  lonesomeness  which  the  visitor  expe- 
riences in  his  solitary  rambling  grows  from  the  fact  that 
no  flower  beds  brighten  his  eye,  and  no  sound  of  rush- 
ing water  reaches  his  ear;  and  besides,  an  olive  grove 
is  naturally  a  lonesome  assemblage  of  trees.  My  final 
advice  to  the  reader  is  never  to  attempt  to  visit  Tibur 
and  the  villa  in  the  same  day ;  he  would  not  be  able  to 
enjoy  either  one  or  the  other.' 

To  the  student  of  Roman  imperial  history,  roaming 
about  this  land,  the  recollection  of  Zenobia's  life,  as  a 
dispossessed  queen  and  as  a  prisoner  of  state,  inspires 
feelings  of  pity  and  admiration;  and  the  proximity  of  her 
place  of  confinement  to  Hadrian's  villa  links  her  name 
to  that  of  the  Emperor,  notwithstanding  the  long  inter- 
val of  time  between  the  rule  of  one  and  the  capture  and 
confinement  of  the  other  "in  Tibur ti  non  longe  ab  Ha- 
drian! palatio." 

This  unfortunate  mistress  of  beautiful  Palmyra, 
widow  of  Odenathus  murdered  in  a.  d.  266,  regent  in 
the  interest  of  her  sons  Herennianus  and  Timolaus,  not 

con  pianta  rilevata  dagli  allievi  della  scuola  degli  ingegneri  sotto  la  dire- 
zione  dei  professor!  Reina  e  Barbieri.    Rome,  1906. 

'  The  less  irrational  itinerary  in  the  labyrinth  of  ruins  leads  the  visitor 
first  to  the  Greek  theatre  and  the  Nymphseum,  and  then  to  the  Pcecile, 
Cento  Camerelle,  Sala  de'  Filosofi,  Teatro  Marittimo,  Stadio,  Terme,  Ca- 
nopo,  Palazzo  Imperiale,  Biblioteche,  Ospitali,  and  Valle  di  Tempe. 


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THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  153 

satisfied  with  the  independence  granted  to  her  people 
by  Gallienus,  plotted  to  bring  within  the  bounds  of  her 
sway  the  whole  of  the  Roman  provinces  of  the  East, 
Egypt,  Syria,  and  Asia  Minor.  It  seems  that  this  am- 
bitious scheme  had  been  formed  by  her  literary  and 
political  adviser,  Cassius  Longinus,  whose  masterly 
knowledge  in  every  branch  of  learning  had  won  for  him 
the  titles  of  "  a  living  library,"  "  a  walking  museum,"  and 
the  "greatest  philosopher"  of  his  age.  However,  if  it 
was  through  his  influence  that  Zenobia  was  led  to  throw 
off  her  allegiance  to  the  empire,  the  indulgence  shown 
by  Aurelian  to  the  queen  did  not  extend  to  the  minister. 
He  was  made  to  pay  for  the  mistake  with  his  life. 

The  meeting  of  the  vanquished  princess  and  the  vic- 
torious Emperor  must  have  thrjlleS  even  such  veteran 
officers  of  the  staff  as  were  allowed*  to  witness  the  inter- 
view. She  is  described  as  a  lady  of  "incredible"  beauty 
(venustatis  incredibilis),  with  an  aquiline  profile,  eyes 
shining  like  living  coals,  brown  complexion,  and  teeth 
so  brilliant  in  their  whiteness  as  to  resemble  a  row  of 
pearls.  She  could  be  gracious  or  stern,  liberal  or  cau- 
tious in  financial  matters,  according  to  circumstances; 
abstemious  as  a  rule,  she  could  drink  toasts  freely  with 
the  army  oflScers ;  used  to  a  vehicle,  she  could  walk  three 
or  four  miles  at  the  head  of  the  troops  attired  in  military 
array.  Conversant  with  the  Palmyrene,  Syrian,  Egyp- 
tian, and  Greek  languages,  she  understood  also  the  of- 
ficial one  of  the  empire,  without  being  able  to  speak  it. 
As  a  queen  she  loved  to  be  dressed  "in  the  style  of  Dido 
the  Carthaginian,"  riding  an  Arab  thoroughbred  with 
the  pompous  show  of  an  Eastern  potentate.  As  regards 
her  morals,  I  can  only  quote  the  expression  of  her  bio- 
grapher :  she  was  intensely  chaste. 

Aurelian,  I  regret  to  say,  did  not  spare  the  captive 


154    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

heroine  the  shame  of  a  public  exhibition  on  the  day  of 
his  triumph,  the  mise-en-scene  of  which  had  been  most 
ungenerously  planned.  Bound  wrists,  feet,  and  neck 
with  chains  of  gold,  she  was  compelled  to  wear  such 
loads  of  jewelry  (gemmce  ingentes)  that  she  actually 
staggered  under  their  weight.  The  latter  part  of  Zeno- 
bia's  life  was  spent  in  the  manner  of  a  Roman  matron 
bent  on  the  education  of  her  children  in  the  privacy  of 
a  country  residence,  which  is  described  as  being  located 
in  the  "district  of  Tibur"  near  "Hadrian's  palace,"  at  a 
place  called  "Conchae."  The  villa  was  still  known  and 
pointed  out  as  Zenobia's  at  the  time  of  Constantine. 

The  memory  of  these  events  has  lasted  to  the  present 
day.  As  the  traveller  through  Rumania  is  reminded  at 
every  step  of  the  presence  of  Trajan,  the  father-of-the- 
land,  the  hero  of  a  thousand  legends,  so  the  rambler 
through  the  territory  of  Tibur  is  made  to  remember  the 
fate  of  Zenobia  in  various  ways  which,  although  lacking 
authenticity,  strike  a  thoughtful  mind  none  the  less. 
The  remains  of  the  thermae  at  the  Sulphur  Springs  are 
still  called  the  "Bagni  della  Regina";  the  alleged  re- 
mains of  her  villa  are  pointed  out  everywhere,  in  the 
"piani  di  Conche"  near  the  railway  station  of  Monti- 
celli,  on  the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano,  etc.  Even  certain 
luscious  products  of  Tiburtine  vineyards,  the  famous 
pizzutelli,  are  considered  a  gift  imported  from  the  East 
by  the  queen.  Unfortunately  this  kind  of  grape  is 
mentioned  two  centuries  before  by  Pliny  the  Elder  under 
the  name  of  "uva  municipalis." 

I  have  taken  pains  to  ascertain  whether  it  is  possible, 
after  the  lapse  of  so  many  centuries,  to  identify  the 
villa  made  illustrious  by  the  residence  of  Zenobia,  and 
this  is  the  result  of  my  investigations. 

The  name  Conche  occurs  in  two  deeds,  of  Novem- 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  157 

ber  7,  1580,  and  July  26,  1585,  in  connection  with  the 
sale  of  certain  lands,  near  the  Bagni  della  Regina,  made 
by  the  brothers  Lentuli  of  Tivoli  to  the  Dominicans  of 
la  Minerva  at  Rome.  It  seems  that  the  fancy  of  local 
antiquaries  was  struck  not  so  much  by  the  name  of 
Conche  as  by  the  discovery  made  by  Prince  Federico 
Cesi,  among  the  same  ruins,  of  gold  and  silver  orna- 
ments belonging  to  a  lady's  toilet.  The  lady  was  iden- 
tified at  once  by  their  fervid  fancy  with  one  of  Zenobia's 
daughters;  and  the  tale,  handed  down  from  Kircher  to 
Cabral  and  Del  Re,  from  Marzi  to  Bulgarini,  has  found 
its  way  even  into  current  literature. 

The  truth  is  that  the  ruins  of  Conche,  as  well  as  the 
neighboring  ones  of  the  Casale  di  Sant'  Antonio  and 
Colle  Ferro,  are  two  miles  distant  from  Hadrian's  villa, 
and  therefore  cannot  pertain  to  a  residence  described  as 
"contiguous"  to  it.  I  believe  that  the  place  must  be 
looked  for  on  the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano,  near  and  above 
the  imperial  country  seat,  on  the  upper  section  of  the 
same  ridge  which  is  bordered  by  the  Vale  of  Tempe  on 
the  north  (Valle  Pussiana)  and  by  the  Vale  of  Ponte 
Terra  on  the  south.  Here,  on  a  plateau  five  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea,  commanding  an  unlimited  view  over 
mountains  and  plain,  are,  or  rather  were,  the  vestiges 
of  a  magnificent  residence,  indeed  so  magnificent  that 
since  the  time  of  Ligorio  it  has  always  been  considered 
as  forming  part  of  the  imperial  estate  and,  therefore, 
included  in  its  plan  by  Ligorio  himself,  Contini,  Pira- 
nesi,  Canina,  and  Penna.  I  say  were  because  the  noble 
remains  have  been  well-nigh  obliterated.  When  I  first 
explored  the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano  under  the  guidance 
of  the  late  Pietro  Rosa,  they  were  towering  in  good 
preservation  high  above  the  clusters  of  genista  with 
which  the  plateau  was  clothed.    We  had  no  difficulty 


158    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

in  recognizing  the  wings  and  sections  of  the  group  to 
which  the  fanciful  names  of  Prytanseum,  Gymnasium, 
Palestra,  Academia,  Temple  of  Diana  and  Venus,  and 
Tower  of  Timon  had  been  attributed  by  the  pioneer 
archaeologists  of  the  sixteenth  century.  I  remember 
particularly  our  descent  into  a  noble  cryptoporticus, 
running  round  the  sides  of  a  quadrangle,  on  the  walls  of 
which  Contini  and  Piranesi  had  written  a  record  of  their 
survey.  This  crypt,  lighted  by  forty  skylights  opening 
in  the  intercolumniations  of  the  peristyle  above,  and 
affording  in  the  hot  hours  of  the  day  a  cool  promenade 
554  feet  long,  showed  here  and  there  traces  of  good 
paintings  and  stucco  work.  Contini's  memorandum, 
written  in  charcoal,  said:  "  In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1634, 
the  eleventh  of  Pope  Urban  VIII,  in  obedience  to  Car- 
dinal Francesco  Barberini's  commands,  I,  Francesco 
Contini  of  Rome,  sparing  no  labor,  have  taken  the  plan 
of  Hadrian's  villa  from  its  extant  ruins  so  greatly  dam- 
aged by  time  and  men."  Piranesi  has  scrawled  in  red 
chalk  the  following  sentence:  "Giovanni  Battista  Pira- 
nesi has  drawn  over  again  these  ruins,  trying  to  make 
out  their  plan,  which  is  an  almost  impossible  under- 
taking. These  words  were  written  by  him  in  the  thirty- 
fifth  year  of  his  age." 

It  may  interest  the  student  of  art  to  know  that  the 
white  walls  of  this  crypt  are  by  no  means  the  only 
album  upon  which  architects  and  painters  have  signed 
their  names,  from  the  dawn  of  the  Renaissance  to  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  I  have  found  several  of 
these  historical  sheets:  one  at  the  uppermost  turn  of 
the  spiral  stairs  of  Trajan's  Column;  a  second  in  the 
Lateran  Baptistery;  a  third  in  the  mausoleum  of  Con- 
stantina  (S.  Costanza),  and  a  fourth  in  the  cryptopor- 
ticus of  Hadrian's  villa,  which  runs  around  three  sides 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


159 


of  the  Frigidarium  of  the  Thermae.  Many  precious 
autographs  have  been  destroyed,  or  rendered  illegible, 
by  ignorant  and  vulgar  tourists,  but  it  is  still  easy  to 
make  out  the  names  of  about  thirty  early  explorers  of 


Map  of  the  hill  of  S.  Stefano,  showing  respective  sites  of  the 
villas  of  Hadrian,  Zenobia,  Maecenas,  Lollia  Paulina,  and 
of  the  Vibii  Varii 

the  artistic  charms  of  the  villa,  such  as  Henricus  Bloe- 
maert  Ultratrajectensis,  1627;  David  Kloker,  1627;  Hen- 
ricus Corvinus  Batavus,  1603;  Mets,  1538  .  .  .  Maler; 
Robertus  Willers  Londinensis,  1647;  A.  de  Holmale, 
1603;  Carolus  Albin,  Parisiensis,  1641 ;  Jacques  Legrand 
peintre  Fran9ois  des  Nations,  1662. 


160    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Since  my  first  visit  to  the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano  the 
tentacles  of  civilization  have  caught  in  their  grip  even 
these  out-of-the-way  lands,  and  many  vestiges  of  the 
past  have  been  obliterated,  not  so  much  by  the  spade 
or  the  plough  as  by  the  greed  of  the  peasants  to  obtain 
materials  for  the  building  of  their  farmhouses  free  of 
expense.  It  seems  that  there  were  not  one  but  two 
great  villas  adjoining  that  of  Hadrian,  both  being  acces- 
sible by  an  independent  road  from  Tibur.  This  pic- 
turesque lane,  as  shown  in  the  map  (p.  159),  branches 
off  the  Strada  Romana  at  the  place  called  "  il  Regresso," 
and  skirting  the  ruins  of  the  so-called  villa  of  Brutus 
^nd  of  the  Troianello,  crosses  the  Vale  of  Tempe  (Valle 
Pussiana)  at  the  Chalybeate  Springs  (the  Acqua  Fer- 
rata),  and  leads  to  two  groups  of  ruins,  the  nearest  on 
the  Colle  Rosa,  the  farthest  near  the  ruined  church  of 
Santo  Stefano.  This  last  belonged  to  the  Vibian  family, 
and  more  particularly  to  Vibius  Varus,  who,  being 
governor  of  Cilicia  under  Hadrian,  may  have  been  in- 
duced by  reason  of  his  intimacy  with  the  Emperor  to 
follow  his  example  and  to  build  his  country  seat  almost 
under  the  shade  of  the  same  trees.  As  regards  the  other 
villa  at  the  Colle  Rosa,  the  remains  of  which,  hidden 
by  luxuriant  vegetation,  I  discovered  on  May  5,  1908,  it 
belonged  to  the  Lollian  family,  as  shown  by  the  inscrip- 
tion of  a  marble  cippus,  which  the  owner  of  the  vineyard 
had  dug  out  of  the  ground  a  few  days  before.  This 
exquisite  gravestone  had  been  erected  to  the  memory  of 
a  freedwoman,  Lollia  Eutyche,  by  her  master,  M.  Lol- 
lius,  whom  I  believe  to  be  the  consul  b.  c.  21,  the 
governor  of  Gaul  in  16,  the  tutor  of  Caius  Caesar,  and  a 
suicide  in  a.  d.  21.  To  him  Horace  addressed  the  ninth 
Ode  of  the  fourth  book,  and  to  his  eldest  son  and 
namesake  the  second  and  eighteenth  Epistles  of  the 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  161 

first  book.  The  most  brilliant  representative  of  this 
family,  however,  was  LoUia  Paulina,  heiress  to  the 
immense  wealth  of  which  her  grandfather  had  robbed 
the  provinces  of  the  East,  the  divorced  wife  of  C. 
Memmius  Regulus,  empress  with  Caligula  in  39  a.  d., 
divorced  again  after  a  few  months,  again  candidate  for 
the  imperial  throne  after  the  murder  of  Messalina. 
Lollia  is  not  unknown  to  my  readers.  In  '* Ancient 
Rome,"  p.  104, 1  have  quoted  the  words  of  Pliny  the 
Elder  concerning  her  doubtful  taste  in  the  matter  of 
personal  attire.  '*!  have  seen  the  lady  at  evening  par- 
ties with  her  hair  dressed  in  emeralds  and  pearls;  in 
fact,  she  wore  emeralds  and  pearls  as  earrings,  neck- 
laces, breastplate,  bracelets,  and  also  as  simple  trim- 
ming of  her  robe,  to  such  excess  that  the  value  of  the 
whole  set  was  estimated  at  forty  million  sesterces" 
($1,600,000).  The  competition  between  the  professional 
beauties,  Lollia  and  Agrippina,  for  the  hand  of  the 
Emperor  Claudius,  in  a.  d.  50,  ended  in  disaster  for  the 
former.  She  was  first  banished,  then  put  to  death  in 
a  remote  island,  and  her  property  was  confiscated. 
I  believe  that  the  Villa  Lolliorum,  forming  as  it  were 
an  annex  to  Hadrian's,  as  part  of  the  imperial  domain, 
is  the  one  chosen  by  Aurelian  as  the  place  of  con- 
finement for  Zenobia ;  and  I  must  acknowledge  that  no 
better  selection  could  have  been  made  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  whole  countryside  by  the  Acqua  Fer- 
rata  and  the  Colle  Rosa  is  picturesque  in  the  extreme, 
well  timbered,  well  watered,  restful,  soothing,  tonic  to 
the  soul  and  the  body.  Here,  in  the  same  house  where 
Paulina  had  appeared  among  her  guests  laden  with 
such  valuable  jewels,  the  banished  queen  must  have 
beheld  with  horror  her  own  set  of  gems  which  she  had 
been  compelled  to  wear  on  the  day  of  her  disgrace  and 


162    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

humiliation,  while  chained  with  chains  of  gold  to  the 
chariot  of  the  slayer  of  Palmyra. 

The  student  exploring  these  silent  glades,  where  the 
spirits  of  dead  heroes  and  heroines  seem  to  be  hovering 
among  the  crumbling  remains  of  their  former  palaces, 
cannot  help  recalling  Addison's  lines  :  — 

"  Poetic  scenes  encompass  me  around, 
And  still  I  seem  to  tread  on  classic  ground; 
For  here  so  oft  the  Muse  her  harp  has  strung 
That  not  a  mountain  rears  its  head  unsung; 
Renown'd  in  verse  each  shady  thicket  grows, 
And  every  stream  in  heav'nly  murmurs  flows." 

Zenobia  was  not  the  first  captive  sovereign  to  whom 
Tibur  had  been  assigned  as  a  retreat.  The  name  of 
'*  Villa  di  Siface"  is  still  given  to  some  ruins  on  the  left 
of  the  Via  Valeria,  one  mile  outside  the  Porta  Sant' 
Angelo,  in  memory  of  the  fate  of  the  Numidian  King 
Syphax,  the  ruler  of  Cirta,  the  husband  of  Sopho- 
nisba,  the  foe  of  Scipio,  Lselius,  and  Masinissa,  the 
undaunted  patriot  who  fought  to  the  last  against  the 
invaders  of  his  native  soil.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  second  Punic  War,  in  which  these  valiant  leaders  so 
distinguished  themselves,  had  been  brought  about  not 
so  much  by  the  rivalry  between  Carthage  and  Rome 
as  by  the  jealousy  between  the  two  Numidian  kings  on 
account  of  Sophonisba.  In  fact,  Masinissa's  desertion 
of  the  Carthaginians  and  his  alliance  with  the  Roman 
invaders  seems  to  have  been  actuated  by  resentment 
against  Hasdrubal,  who  had  broken  a  solemn  pledge 
by  giving  his  beautiful  daughter  in  marriage  to  Masi- 
nissa's rival,  Syphax,  King  of  Cirta.  When  this  royal 
city  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  allied  forces,  and  Sopho- 
nisba was  left  at  the  mercy  of  her  former  lover,  such  was 
the  power  of  her  charms  that  he  forgave  the  past  and 


THE  LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


163 


The  Tiburtine  hills,  a  view  over  which  Queen  Zenobia  must  have  gazed  for 
years  from  the  terrace  of  her  villa-prison 


laid  himself  at  her  feet.  The  nuptials  were  celebrated 
without  delay,  but  Scipio,  fearful  of  the  political  con- 
sequences of  such  an  alliance,  refused  to  sanction  it. 
Unable  to  resist  this  command,  the  Numidian  king 
spared  Sophonisba  the  horrors  of  captivity  by  sending 
her  a  bowl  of  poison,  which  she  drank  without  hesitation. 
Syphax,  sent  to  Rome  as  a  prisoner  of  state  under  the 
charge  of  Laelius,  was  relegated  to  Tibur,  where  a  timely 


164    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN   CAMPAGNA 

death  saved  him  from  the  ignominy  of  appearing  in 
Seipio's  triumph.  I  need  not  say  that  the  identifica- 
tion of  the  Villa  di  Siface  at  the  first  milestone  of  the 
Via  Valeria  is  purely  conjectural;  and  that  the  name 
**i  Reali,"  which  the  district  bears  in  old  maps,  has 
nothing  in  common  with  "royalty,"  but  is  an  obvious 
corruption  of  the  name  ''Oriali,"  proper  to  one  of  the 
suburbs  of  Tibur. 

In  studying  the  residences  assigned  to  royalty  in  the 
hill  towns  of  Latium,  we  must  distinguish  those  of 
honored  guests  of  the  state  from  those  of  hostages  and 
prisoners  en  'parole. 

Royal  guests  were  received  in  Rome  with  extraordinary 
honors.  When  King  Prusias  of  Bithynia  visited  the  me- 
tropolis in  B.  c.  166,  a  deputation  from  the  Senate  wel- 
comed him  outside  the  gates,  escorted  him  to  a  mansion 
hired  for  the  occasion,  and  ordered  that  no  less  a  person- 
age than  L.  Cornelius  Scipio,  praetor,  should  act  as  guide 
and  escort  to  him  during  his  visit.  The  same  cordial 
reception  was  tendered  to  King  Ptolemy  of  Egypt,  when, 
banished  from  his  country  in  57  b.  c,  he  came  to  seek 
the  help  of  the  Republic;  to  King  Ariobarzanes  of  Cap- 
padocia,  to  King  Nicomedes  of  Bithynia,  and  other  such 
Eastern  rulers,  each  of  whom  left  in  Rome  a  memento 
of  his  visit  and  a  token  of  his  gratitude,  in  the  shape  of  a 
work  of  art  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitol. 

When  Cleopatra  and  her  brother-husband  came  to 
visit  Csesar  in  b.  c.  44,  the  dictator  offered  them  hospi- 
tality in  his  own  house  on  the  Sacra  Via.  The  result  of 
this  intimacy  was  the  birth  of  a  child  to  whom  the  tell- 
tale name  of  Csesarion  was  given,  and  the  presentation 
of  valuable  gifts  to  the  departing  queen. 

The  reception  tendered  by  Nero  to  King  Tyridates  of 
Armenia,  in  a.  d.  66,  is  described  by  Dion  Cassius  in  the 


THE  LAND   OF  HADRIAN  .  165 

sixth  chapter  of  the  sixty- third  book:  "There  was  a 
feast  given  in  the  theatre  of  Pompey,  for  the  celebration 
of  which  the  whole  building  was  gilded.  Hence  the 
name  of  the  '  Golden  Day/  by  which  the  occurrence  is 
recorded  to  the  present  time.  The  awning  stretched 
over  the  seats  of  the  [17,580]  spectators  was  woven  of 
purple,  with  an  embroidery  in  the  centre  representing 


A  view  of  the  Doric  Court,  Hadrian's  villa 

Nero  driving  the  chariot  of  the  sun,  the  whole  surface 
being  dotted  with  stars  of  gold." 

In  1899  I  found  in  the  Vigna  Serventi,  on  the  Via 
Labicana,  a  much  humbler  souvenir  of  a  regal  visit  to 
Rome,  the  funeral  tablet  of  a  butler  or  valet  to  King 
Samsiceramus  of  Emesa.  In  this  "  Romanization  "  of  a 
difficult  Eastern  name  we  can  easily  detect  the  original 
form  of  Schamschigeram,  which  in  the  Palmyrene  Ian- 


166    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

guage  means  '*  the  Sun  hath  generated  him."  This  chief- 
tain belonged  to  a  dynasty  which  had  first  come  in 
contact  with  the  Roman  at  the  time  of  Pompey  the  Great. 
His  name  must  have  sounded  queer  to  Roman  ears;  it 
certainly  stirred  a  sense  of  humor  in  Cicero,  who  in  a 
confidential  letter  to  Atticus  (b.  c.  59)  calls  Pompey 
"our  Samsigeramus." 

In  1904  another  tombstone,  inscribed  with  the  name 
of  Tyche,  a  maid  to  Julia,  daughter  of  King  Tigranes  I 
of  Armenia,  was  discovered  in  the  Faliscan  district  by 
Vignanello.  This  young  princess  must  have  been  held 
for  reasons  of  state  at  Faleria,  where  she  built  the  shrine 
to  Cybele  mentioned  in  "  Corpus  Inscriptionum,"  vol. 
xi,  n.  3080. 

The  burial  ground  provided  for  foreign  men  of  dis- 
tinction who  died  in  Rome  as  guests  or  prisoners  was 
located  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber,  near  the  Milvian 
bridge.  Here  the  grave  of  Abgar,  son  of  Praat,  sheik  of 
the  Osrhoenes,  was  found  in  May,  1724;  and  here  also 
another  tablet  was  seen  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in- 
scribed as  follows:  "In  memory  of  Ziah  Tiat,  daughter 
of  Dakah,  wife  of  Piepor,  King  of  the  Costoboci,"  a 
powerful  barbaric  race  living  in  Bessarabia,  near  the 
land  of  the  Alans. 

Zenobia's  presence  in  our  country  was  attended  by 
other  momentous  results,  among  which  the  popularity 
gained  by  her  own  national  god,  the  Sun  of  Palmyra, 
over  the  Roman  Sun-Apollo,  deserves  special  notice. 
The  worship  of  the  first,  as  practised  in  Syria,  was  not 
unknown  to  the  Romans,  tainted  as  they  had  been  with 
foreign  superstitions  long  before  the  time  of  Aurelian. 
An  active  propagandism  in  the  garrison  cities  and  har- 
bors of  the  East  had  been  exercised  since  the  days  of 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  167 

Pompey  the  Great  by  the  votaries  of  Baal,  Sabazius, 
Rhea,  Atys-Menotyrannus,  Mithras,  Jupiter  Dolichene, 
Isis,  and  Serapis,  to  make  proselytes  among  the  legion- 
aries and  among  the  crews  of  the  war  vessels  stationed 
at  Alexandria  and  at  other  ports  of  the  Phoenician  and 
Lycian  seas.  These  simple  folk,  returning  home  at  the 
expiration  of  their  military  service,  would  form  societies, 
bound  by  mystery  and  secrecy,  for  the  practice  of  grew- 
some  ceremonies  in  underground  dens,  which  bore  the 
name  of  spelea  in  case  of  a  Mithriac  brotherhood,  or  of 
megara  when  used  for  Isiac  initiations.  And  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  law  allowed  to  foreign  colonies  ample 
freedom  to  worship  their  Oeol  TrarpcooL  in  their  own  way, 
under  the  care  of  their  consuls  or  irpo^evoi,  who  were 
invested  at  the  same  time  with  sacerdotal  and  commer- 
cial functions. 

Three  fanatics  had  made  themselves  conspicuous  in 
Rome  long  before  Zenobia's  advent,  as  apostles  of  East- 
ern creeds  —  C.  Julius  Anicetus,  Ti.  Julius  Balbillus, 
and  M.  Antonius  Gaionas.  This  last  meddler,  owing  to 
certain  discoveries  made  on  the  Janiculum  while  I  am 
writing  this  chapter,  has  become  the  hero  of  the  day  and 
the  most-talked-of  personage  in  archaeological  circles,  as 
we  shall  presently  see.  Through  their  joint  efforts,  and 
through  the  influential  support  of  other  sectarians,  a 
public  place  of  worship  for  the  Palmyrene  gods  had  been 
erected  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Gardens  of  Caesar,  on  the  right  of  the  road  to  Porto,  and 
on  the  site  of  the  Vigna  Bonelli,  where  the  new  railway 
station  for  the  Maremma  lines  now  stands.  It  was  not  a 
temple  in  the  Roman  sense  of  the  word,  but  an  assem- 
blage of  meeting  and  committee  rooms,  chapels,  shrines, 
fountains,  porticoes,  including  even  a  stage  for  theatrical 
performances.    Here  C.  Julius  Anicetus,  who  must  have 


168    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

been  a  person  of  neat  proclivities,  had  a  marble  tablet 
put  up  at  the  entrance  door,  inscribed  with  the  following 
caution:  "C.  Julius  Anicetus,  by  order  of  the  Sun,  begs 
that  none  entering  these  premises  should  write  on  the 
walls  or  scratch  or  soil  the  plastering."  Here  a  great 
number  of  altars  with  dedications  in  Latin  and  Palmy- 
rene  had  been  erected  to  gods  whose  names  must  have 
sounded  strange  to  Roman  ears,  —  Baal,  Belos,  Aglibe- 
los,  Malakibelos,  Alagabalos,  and  the  like.  And  what 
must  people  used  to  the  dignified  grace  of  the  classic 


A  dedication  to  Malakibelos,  written  in  Palmyrene,  discovered  in  the  Trastevere, 
and  now  in  the  Capitoline  Museum  ^ 

epigraphic  style  have  thought  of  dedications  written  in 
such  uncouth  spelling  as  the  one  here  reproduced  ?  ^ 

The  other  ardent  sectarian,  Ti.  Julius  Balbillus,  be- 
trays his  Syrian  origin  by  the  radical  of  his  name 
(Baalbillus),  a  name  which  occurs  in  more  than  twenty 
inscriptions,  mostly  discovered  in  the  Trastevere.  He  is 
pointed  out  in  these  as  a  priest  of  the  sun  Alagabalos,  as 
a  great  favorite  among  his  co-religionaries,  to  whom  even 

^  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.,  vol.  vi,  n.  710. 

^  This  dedication,  engraved  on  an  altar  discovered  about  1485  on  the 
site  of  the  sanctuary  just  described,  has  been  translated  by  Gildemeister  as 
follows:  "  This  altar  has  been  erected  by  Tiberius  Claudius  Felix,  and  other 
Palmyrenes,  to  Malakibelos  and  the  Gods  of  Tadmor." 


THE  LAND   OF  HADRIAN  169 

statues  were  raised  in  token  of  his  zeal/  and  as  having 
finished  his  career  about  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury after  Christ,  in  the  time  of  Septimius  Severus  and 
Caracalla.  But  the  most  important  document  concern- 
ing his  family  and  relations,  and  his  connection  with 
the  royal  house  of  Palmyra,  is  the  legend  of  the  pedestal 
of  a  statue  discovered  at  S.  Callisto  in  the  Trastevere  by 
Rycquius.  It  says:  '*[This  statue  is  dedicated]  to  Lucia 
Septimia  Balbilla  Patabiniana  Tyria  Nepotilla  Odcena- 
thiana,  daughter  of  a  patrician  house,  by  her  nurse, 
Aurelia  Publiana  Elfridia."^  It  appears  from  this  dis- 
play of  names  that  the  girl  Balbilla  (probably  the  grand- 
daughter of  Julia  Balbilla,  former  lady-in-waiting  to  the 
Empress  Sabina,  whom  she  followed  in  her  journey  up 
the  Nile,  and  with  whom  she  signed  her  name  on  the 
pedestal  of  the  Colossus  of  Memnon)  had  also  a  touch  of 
royal  Palmyrene  blood  in  her  veins,  having  been  named 
Lucia  Septimia  in  memory  of  Zenobia,  and  Odcena- 
thiana  in  memory  of  her  murdered  king.  These  con- 
jectures are  strengthened  by  the  evidence  of  the  so-called 
Trebellius  Pollio  in  chapter  twenty-seven  of  the  life 
of  the  Thirty  Tyrants.  '*  Aurelian,"  he  says,  "has  been 
accused  of  the  murder  of  Zenobia's  sons  Herennianus 
and  Timolaus.  But  it  is  almost  certain  that  both  died  a 
natural  death,  because  the  descendants  of  Zenobia  are 
still  flourishing  to  this  day  [fourth  century]  among  the 
Roman   nobility."  ^ 

The  events  just  related  and  the  outburst  of  fanati- 
cism in  favor  of  the  gods  of  Syria  and  Palmyra  must 
have  given  concern  to  the  college  of  pontiffs,  trustees  as 

^  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.  LaL,  vol.  vi,  n.  708,  1027,  2129,  2130,  2269, 
2270,  and  Kaibel,  Inscr.  Grcecoe,  n.  962,  969,  970-972. 
^  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.,  vol.  vi,  n.  1516. 
^  Compare  Sallet,  Die  Fursten  von  Palmyra,  Berlin,  1866. 


170    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

they  were  of  the  rehgious  interests  of  the  capital.  Aure- 
lian  himself,  the  indirect  cause  of  the  trouble,  thought  it 
expedient  to  interfere  by  raising  a  temple  to  the  "offi- 
cial" Sun  of  Rome,  on  the  same  Quirinal  hill  on  which 
it  had  been  worshipped  from  time  immemorial  at  the 
"Pulvinar  Solis,"  a  shrine  which  must  have  stood  where 
the  group  of  the  Horse  Tamers  now  stands.  This  tem- 
ple, described  as  the  "most  magnificent"  in  Rome,  was 
also  meant  to  give  the  people  an  impression  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  Eastern  architecture,  especially  as  regards  the 
size  of  the  marble  blocks  used  in  the  structure.  The  one 
now  lying  in  the  upper  terrace  of  the  Villa  Colonna, 
which  measures  nine  hundred  cubic  feet  and  weighs  a 
hundred  tons,  had  been  raised  to  the  level  of  the  pedi- 
ment, a  hundred  feet  above  the  floor  of  the  temple!  A 
discovery,  made  in  the  year  1870,  of  several  Palmyrene 
memoranda  written  in  charcoal  or  red  chalk  on  the 
plastering  of  one  of  the  crypts  of  the  temple,  connects 
its  origin  and  its  fate  with  the  beautiful  Queen  of  the 
East,  Zenobia,  who,  from  the  terrace  of  her  house  on 
the  hills  of  Santo  Stefano,  could  see  the  chariot  of  the 
Roman  god  glistening  in  the  morning  sun  from  the  pedi- 
ment of  the  temple  raised  by  Aurelian  to  commemorate 
her  own  defeat. 

I  must  now  introduce  to  my  reader  the  third  member 
of  the  Syrian  brotherhood,  M.  Antonius  Gaionas,  whose 
name  has  been  made  popular  again  in  Rome  by  the 
discoveries  made  on  the  Janiculum  on  Saturday,  Febru- 
ary 6th,  of  the  present  year. 

The  beginning  of  this  bright  incident  in  the  history  of 
urban  excavations  goes  back  to  the  summer  of  1906, 
when  Mr.  George  Wurts,  the  present  owner  of  the  Villa 
Crescenzi-Ottoboni-Sciarra,  was  laying  the  foundations 
of  a  new  gardener's  house  near  the  lower  gate  opening 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


171 


on  the  Viale  Glorioso.  Among  the  many  marbles  with 
Greek  and  Latin  inscriptions  brought  to  Hght  on  this 
occasion  there  were  -a  votive  altar  to  the  Syrian  god 
Adados;  another  to  Jupiter  Maleciabrudes,  the  local 
god  of  the  Syrian  town  of  Jabruda;  a  third  to  Jupiter 
Keraunios,  or  Fulgurator,  and  to  the  Nymphs  Furrinse; 
and  lastly  a  Greek  metric  inscription  concerning  cer- 
tain works  accomplished  by  a  devotee  named  Gaionas 
(the  Aramaic  for  *' the  magnificent").  This  enterprising 


,1?^/ 


'V-ri,msS^JK4aJ^M,^Cm*9c^!^hiiJ^- 


The  remains  of  the  Temple  of  the  bun  opiX).sile  llie  Quiriiial  palace.     (From  an 
engraving  by  Giovannoli  made  in  the  time  of  Paul  V) 


representative  of  Eastern  superstitions  in  Rome  was 
already  known  to  us,  like  Balbillus,  from  other  records, 
published  both  in  the  '*  Corpus  Inscr.  Latin."  and  in 
Kaibel's  "  Inscr.  Grsecse."  In  these  he  gives  himself 
great  airs,  and  the  unheard-of  titles  of  "  deipnokrites " 
and  **cistiber"  or  "cistiber  Augustorum."  He  was  cer- 
tainly a  busybody,  always  on  the  alert  to  catch  the 
opportunities  of  the  moment,  and  to  make  himself  con- 
spicuous whenever  circumstances  permitted.    When  in 


172    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  year  176  the  spiral  column  was  raised  in  the  Cam- 
pus Martins  to  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius,  in  com- 
memoration of  his  successful  campaigns  against  the 
Marcomanni  and  the  Sarmati,  what  should  Gaionas  do 
but  erect  a  diminutive  column  of  his  own,  with  a  pom- 
pous inscription  in  praise  of  the  same  deeds  of  his 
sovereign. 

The  texts  discovered  by  Mr.  Wurts  in  1906  proved: 
first,  that  the  lower  section  of  the  old  Villa  Sciarra, 
where  the  gardener's  cottage  has  just  been  erected, 
marks  the  site  of  the  sacred  grove  of  Furrina,  where 
Caius  Gracchus  was  put  to  death  by  his  own  attend- 
ant in  B.  c.  121,  while  the  bodies  of  his  three  thousand 
partisans  were  thrown  into  the  Tiber,  which  runs  just 
at  the  foot  of  the  slope;  secondly,  that  the  existence  in 
the  same  grove  of  several  springs,  held  in  religious  re- 
spect, brought  about  in  imperial  times  the  evolution  of 
the  old  local  goddess  Furrina  into  a  group  of  aquatic 
Nymphs  of  the  same  name;  ^  lastly,  that  at  the  time  of 
the  Antonines  a  section  of  the  sacred  grove,  and  one,  at 
least,  of  the  springs,  became  the  property  of  the  Syrian 
colony  (or  of  one  of  the  Syrian  colonies)  in  Rome, 
which  was  given  leave  to  build  a  national  chapel  and 
to  set  up  a  fountain  for  the  use  of  its  attendants. 

Starting  from  these  facts.  Professor  Paul  Gauckler  — 
.whose  archaeological  work  as  Curator  of  Antiquities  in 
Tunisia  stands  in  no  need  of  my  praises  —  took  up  the 
subject  with  a  view  to  a  thorough  search  of  the  ground, 
and,  overcoming  various  difficulties,  in  high  and  low 
quarters,  he  has,  with  the  assistance  of  Messrs.  George 

^  Cicero  (Nat.  Deor.,  iii,  18)  calls  the  scene  of  Gracchus's  murder  the 
grove  of  the  Furies,  but  those  Attic  deities  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
naturalized  at  Rome;  and  we  may  infer  from  Varro  that  Furrina  was  some 
indigenous  goddess. 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


173 


Nicole  and  Gaston  Darien,  and  the  sanction  of  the 
owner  of  the  ground,  the  Marchese  Medici  del  Vascello, 
carried  out  his  plan  with  perfect  success. 

In  the  first  place,  the  spring  made  into  a  canal  by 
Gaionas  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-worshippers  has 
been  again  brought  into  play.  It  gives  an  output  of  a 
hundred  and  forty  cubic  metres  per  day,  and,  being  of 
excellent  quality,  represents  to  the  owner  of  the  land  an 


L 

W 

wm-^ 

* 

fS 

The  finding  of  the  triangular  altar  in  the  chapel  of  Jupiter 
Heliopolitanus  on  the  Janiculum 


additional  capital  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs.  The 
basin  of  Carystian  marble  (cipollino  oscuro)  into  which 
the  water  once  fell,  discovered  accidentally  in  1902,  was 
sold  to  the  antiquary  Simonetti  for  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  francs,  and  still  belongs  to  his  collection. 

In  the  second  place,  it  has  been  made  clear  that  the 
original  sanctuary,  built  by  Gaionas  towards  the  end 


174    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

of  the  second  century,  must  have  come  to  grief  —  or 
been  abandoned  —  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  on 
account  of  its  unfavorable  position  at  the  bottom  of  a 
ravine,  and  another  must  have  been  built  at  a  higher 
level,  with  the  negligence  and  the  poverty  of  materials 
characteristic  of  the  fourth  century.  The  walls  of  this 
later  sanctuary  have  no  foundations,  and  are  built  with 
chips  of  tufa  and  bad  cement ;  but  the  plan  of  the 
structure  itself  is  remarkable.  It  comprises  a  central 
assembly  room  of  considerable  dimensions,  facing  the 
east,  with  a  triangular  base  in  the  middle,  and  a  square 
altar  in  the  apse,  over  which  a  mutilated  marble  statue 
was  lying,  probably  of  a  Jupiter  Heliopolitanus  or  of 
a  Romanized  Baal.  The  assembly  room  is  surrounded 
by  five  or  six  chapels,  in  the  plan  of  which,  as  well  as 
in  other  structural  details,  the  triangular  shape  pre- 
vails. In  one  of  these  recesses,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 
group,  another  triangular  altar  of  large  dimensions  was 
discovered  on  February  6,  1909,  with  a  rim  or  raised 
border,  as  if  to  prevent  a  liquid  substance  from  spread- 
ing over  it  and  dripping  on  the  pavement. 

It  seems,  in  the  third  place,  that  towards  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century  the  worshippers  in  this  Syrian  chapel 
must  have  joined  forces  with  the  worshippers  of  Mithras, 
who  were  then  engaged  in  a  war  a  outrance  against  the 
overpowering  Christian  influence;  and  that  they  must 
have  had  to  face  the  same  decree  of  suppression  issued 
by  Gracchus,  prefect  of  the  city,  in  377,  which  put  an 
end  to  the  practice  of  foreign  superstition  in  Rome. 

To  such  an  incident  in  the  history  of  the  Syrian 
Transtiberine  congregation  Professor  Gauckler  attrib- 
utes the  fact  that  the  beautiful  statues  of  gods  discov- 
ered at  the  present  time  within  the  precincts  of  the 
sanctuary  had  been  studiously  concealed  two  feet  below 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


175 


the  floor.  One,  absolutely  perfect,  represents  a  young 
Bacchus  with  the  usual  attributes,  and  with  the  head 
and  hands  heavily  gilded.  Perhaps  the  figure  was 
dressed  in  rich  Eastern  clothing,  like  some  of  our  pop- 
ular saints  in  Italian  villages.    The  other  is  an  exquisite 


A  more  detailed  view  of  the  triangular  altar  before  the  trap 
door  marked  A,  B,  C,  D  was  lifted 

image  of  a  young  Isis,  which  I  believe  to  be  an  original 
Egyptian  work  worthy  of  having  come  out  of  one  of  the 
studios  of  the  Saitic  school;  while  others  consider  it  an 
imitative  work  of  the  time  of  Hadrian.    The  statue  (cut 


176    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

in  black  basalt)  must  have  been  knocked  off  its  altar  or 
pedestal  by  a  heavy  blow  on  the  forehead,  disfiguring 
the  nose  and  the  lips,  and  breaking  the  body  into  five 
or  six  pieces,  which,  however,  were  piously  collected  by 
some  one  and  buried  in  the  apse  of  one  of  the  smaller 
chapels.    I  believe  not  one  is  missing. 

The  finds  described  in  the  preceding  paragraphs,  in- 
teresting as  they  are  from  the  archaeological  point  of 
view,  have  been  almost  cast  into  oblivion  by  those 
which  have  revealed  to  us  some  of  the  secrets  of  the 
place. 

In  the  "sancta  sanctorum"  of  the  main  chapel,  within 
the  high  altar  and  right  under  the  feet  of  the  Jupiter- 
Baal,  a  hiding-place  has  been  detected,  about  one  foot 
square,  lined  with  plaster,  in  which  part  of  a  human 
skull  of  an  adult  was  concealed.  There  were  no  traces 
of  jaws  or  teeth  or  incinerated  bones,  nor  of  goblets, 
medals,  jewelry,  and  other  such  funeral  KeufjajXia.  The 
section  of  the  skull  appears  to  have  been  neatly  cut,  to 
fit  the  size  of  the  hole  which  was  to  guard  the  secret  of 
its  existence  for  nearly  sixteen  centuries.  As  we  cannot 
for  obvious  reasons  consider  this  relic  an  os  resectum, 
a  remnant  of  the  incineration  of  the  body.  Professor 
Gauckler  has  advanced  the  conjecture  that  we  may  have 
in  this  piece  of  skull  the  evidence  of  a  human  sacrifice 
"of  consecration,"  so  frequent  in  the  rites  of  Semitic 
religions.  The  place  of  honor  given  to  it  in  the  Trans- 
tiberine  sanctuary  shows  how  valuable  it  was  in  the  eyes 
of  the  initiated,  at  whose  expense  the  sanctuary  had  been 
rebuilt.  This  would  be,  then,  the  first  evidence  of  a 
human  holocaust  ever  found  in  Rome.  The  victim,  im- 
molated according  to  the  ancient  rites,  by  virtue  of  the 
sacrifice  would  chain  the  god,  as  it  were,  to  the  relics, 
thus  insuring  his  actual   presence  wherever  they  were 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


177 


preserved.  We  must  remember,  apropos  of  this  theory, 
that  when  the  Mithrseum  of  Alexandria  was  suppressed 
by  the  Emperor  Cons  tan  tins  in  361,  a  party  of  Christian 
invaders  discovered  in  a  secret  passage  human  bones, 
which  were  shown  to  the  populace  as  a  proof  that  human 
sacrifices  had  been  perpetrated  in  that  den  of  iniquities. 
Another  secret  has  been  found  buried  in  the  core  of 


What  was  found  in  the  hiding-place 


the  triangular  altar  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  building. 
It  seems  that  on  the  consecration  day  a  symbolic  image 
of  the  presiding  god,  or  of  one  of  the  presiding  gods,  was 
buried  in  a  hiding-place  identical  in  shape  with  the  one 
described  above,  and  sealed  with  a  "tegula  bipedalis'% 
lined  with  cement  around  the  rim.  Lying  at  the  bottom 
of  the  cache,  with  feet  turned  towards  the  west,  viz., 
towards  the  high  altar,  was  a  bronze  figure  of  a  Mithras 
Leontokephalos  (?),  wound,  as  usual,  in  the  coils  of  a 


178    WANDERINGS  IN   THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

snake,  whose  head  bends  forward  above  that  of  the  god. 
The  interrogation  mark  in  such  matter-of-fact  ques- 
tions is  easily  explained.  On  the  day  of  the  consecra- 
tion, before  the  hiding-place  was  sealed,  in  which  the 
snake  and  its  symbolic  victim  were  to  lie  forever,  mystic 
food  was  provided  for  the  reptile,  and  five  hen's  eggs 
were  deposited,  one  at  each  coil.  I  do  not  know  how 
these  eggs  came  to  be  broken ;  the  fact  is  that  their  yolk, 
mixed  with  dust  and  lime,  has  stained  and  encrusted 
the  figure  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  out  its  features, 
and  the  material  in  which  it  is  cast  or  moulded  or 
chiselled,  unless  it  is  lifted  from  its  couch  and  examined 
in  the  proper  light.  This  has  not  been  done  yet,  be- 
cause there  is  a  probability  that  the  altar  and  its  contents 
may  be  removed  bodily  to  the  Museo  Nazionale,  where 
the  proper  investigation  can  be  made  in  more  favorable 
circumstances  than  in  the  open  air. 

I  have  found  the  following  point  of  comparison  in  the 
"memoirs"  of  Flaminio  Vacca,  the  genial  archaeological 
chronicler  of  the  time  of  Sixtus  V.  He  describes  how 
a  secret  place  of  worship,  the  door  of  which  had  been 
walled  up,  was  found  in  the  vineyard  of  Orazio  Muti 
opposite  the  church  of  San  Vitale,  just  at  the  point  where 
the  Via  Venezia  now  branches  off  from  the  Via  Na- 
zionale ;  and  says  that,  the  wall  having  been  demolished, 
the  explorers  saw  a  human  figure  with  the  head  of  a 
lion,  round  whose  body  a  serpent  was  wound  in  coils, 
with  the  head  above  that  of  the  monster-god.  There 
were  many  clay  lamps  around  the  plinth  of  the  statue, 
with  the  "becco"  or  point  turned  towards  it.  I  can 
vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  Vacca's  statement,  because 
the  cave  was  entered  again  in  1869,  when  Monsignor 
de  Merode,  Secretary  for  War  to  Pope  Pius  IX,  was 
tracing   the  present  Via  Nazionale  along  the  northern 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  179 

slope  of  the  Viminal.  It  was  undoubtedly  a  Mithrseum 
in  which  the  god  was  worshipped  —  as  on  the  Janicu- 
lum  —  as  Leontokephalos.  The  door  must  have  been 
walled  up  by  the  devotees  at  the  time  of  the  last  perse- 
cution of  Gracchus  (a.  d.  377). 

Another  name,  and  an  equally  popular  one,  is  con- 
nected with  Hadrian's  villa.  Antinous,  that  youth  of 
extraordinary  beauty,  that  most  perfect  specimen  of 
manhood  to  be  found  in  ancient  statuary,  born  at 
Claudiopolis  in  Bithynia,  became  at  an  early  age  the 
favorite  of  Hadrian  and  a  companion  of  his  travels.  In 
the  year  122,  while  the  imperial  galley  sailing  on  the 
Nile  was  abreast  of  the  city  of  Besa  in  the  Heptanomis, 
the  favorite  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned.  His 
death  has  been  considered  by  grave  historians  not  as  the 
outcome  of  an  accident,  but  as  an  act  of  suicide  h6tn 
melancholy,  occasioned  by  the  belief  that  the  sacrifice 
of  his  life  would  avert  evil  from  the  Emperor.  The  grief 
of  the  latter  knew  no  bounds;  it  is  called  "feminine"  by 
the  biographer.  The  dead  youth  was  enrolled  amongst 
the  gods.  Besa,  where  the  sad  ev>ent  took  place,  was 
rebuilt  in  new  splendor  under  the  name  of  Antinoopolis, 
and  made  the  capital  of  the  Antinoite  Nomos  or  province; 
temples  were  erected  to  him  at  Mantinea  and  at  Lanu- 
vium ;  clubs  and  collegia  were  named  after  him,  like  that 
of  the  "cultores  Dianae  et  Antinoi"  at  Civita  Lavinia,^ 
and  regular  feast-days  were  established  at  Athens,  Ar- 
gos,  Mantinea,  and  Claudiopolis.  The  representations 
of  his  likeness  in  statues,  busts,  and  bas-reliefs  are  innu- 
merable. The  one  reproduced  on  page  165,  discovered 
by  Gavin  Hamilton  in  1795  at  Palestrina,  reaches  the 
same  degree  of  perfection,  among  full-sized  statues  that 

*  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  196,  n.  2112. 


180    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  Albani  portrait,  found  in  Hadrian's  villa  in  1735, 
claims  among  bas-reliefs.  In  the  Palestrina  replica,  An- 
tinous  is  represented  as  Dionysus  with  the  ivy  wreath, 
the  pine  cone  on  the  forehead,  and  the  mystic  cista  on 
the  plinth.  The  head,  Helbig  remarks,^  "suggests  the 
half-sensuous,  half-gloomy  mystic  nature  of  the  Bithy- 
nian,  who  probably  had  a  neat  complexion  with  dark 
eyes  and  blue-black  hair."  Emil  Braun^  considers  '*this 
portrait  of  the  wonderfully  constituted  youth  —  who  has 
attained  a  greater  personal  celebrity  than  almost  any 
other  personage  of  pagan  antiquity  —  as  the  most  faith- 
ful and  complete  we  possess.  Every  feature  of  the  face 
is  given  with  a  sharpness  proving  that  the  master  com- 
missioned to  execute  so  splendid  a  monument  had  con- 
fined himself  strictly  to  the  truth  of  nature.  He  has  at 
the  same  time  succeeded  in  expressing  that  magic  power 
which  exercised  so  mysterious  an  influence,  not  merely 
upon  Hadrian,  but  on  all  his  contemporaries.  ...  In 
the  total  absence  of  satisfactory  information  as  to  the 
relation  between  Antinous  and  Hadrian,  the  numerous 
monuments  raised  with  unfeigned  enthusiasm  to  cele- 
brate the  memory  of  the  former  are  of  inestimable 
value."  The  same  archaeologist,  speaking  of  the  colos- 
sal bust  (n.  545  in  the  Rotunda  of  the  Vatican),  which 
is  represented  as  growing  out  of  the  calyx  of  a  lotus 
flower,  in  a  species  of  metempsychosis,  remarks  how 
"the  rounded  outlines  of  the  Bithynian,  the  slightly 
curled  hair,  and  the  lovely  trace  of  melancholy  are  not 
without  originality  in  this  thousand-times-repeated  por- 
trait. As  regards  the  calyx  of  the  flower,  introduced 
below  the  bust  (sic),  it  probably  refers  to  the  flower 
named  after  Antinous,  in  which  the  soul  of  the  youth, 

*  Guide  to  the  Collections  of  Antiquities  in  Rome,  ed.  1895,  p.  209,  n.  295. 
'  Ruins  and  Museums  of  Rome,  p.  436,  n.  1. 


THE  STATUE  OF  ANTINOUS  DISCOVERED  BY  GAVIN  HAMILTON 
AT  PALESTRINA  IN  THE  YEAR  1795 


THE   LAND   OF  HADRIAN  183 

so  early  called  away,  was  supposed  still  to  continue  to 
exist." 

We  have  in  Rome  a  monument  inscribed  with  his 
name,  placed  in  a  popular  and  conspicuous  position; 
but  its  connection  with  Antinous  being  expressed  in 
hieroglyphics,  it  has  become  known  only  to  few.  I  refer 
to  the  obelisk,  discovered  in  1570  by  the  brothers  Curzio 
and  Marcello  Saccoccia  in  the  circus  of  the  Varian  Gar- 
dens beyond  Santa  Croce  in  Gerusalemme,  which  was 
removed  by  Bernini  to  the  Barberini  palace  at  the  time 
of  Urban  VIII.  President  de  Brosses  and  five  other 
gentlemen  from  Burgundy  asked  leave  from  Pope 
Clement  XII  to  erect  it  at  their  expense  in  front  of 
S.  Luigi  di  Francesi.  This  scheme  luckily  failed,  but 
the  wanderings  of  the  pillar  did  not  end  then.  Princess 
Cornelia  Barberini  presented  it  to  Clement  XIV,  who 
caused  it  to  be  removed  to  the  Vatican ;  Pius  VI  thought 
of  placing  it  first  in  the  Piazza  di  Monte  Citorio,  and 
again  on  top  of  the  tower  of  the  Porta  Pia,  so  that 
an  observer  standing  at  the  crossing  of  the  Quattro 
Fontane  could  see  four  obelisks,  at  the  end  of  the  four 
streets.  Valadier  and  Pius  VII  set  it  up  at  last  in  the 
central  avenue  of  the  Passeggiata  del  Pincio.  The  hier- 
oglyphic legends  which  it  bears,  written  in  the  over- 
mannered  style  of  Hadrian's  age,  sing  the  deification 
of  the  drowned  favorite  in  various  ways,  and  reveal  a 
circumstance  of  thrilling  interest:  Antinous  was  buried 
in  Rome  in  Hadrian's  mausoleum!  "  Antinous  welcher 
dort  ist,  welcher  ruht  in  dieser  Statte,  die  in  Grenzfelde 
der  Herrin  des  Genusses  Hrome  liegt."  From  these 
words  ^  we  gather  that  the  obelisk  now  on  the  Pincian 
Hill  must  have   been   raised  by  Hadrian  on  the  spina 

^  Translated  by  Dr.  A.  Herman  in  Mittheil.  des  Archaeol.  Inst, 
Roemische  AhtheiL,  1896,  p.  119. 


184    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

of  his  circus  adjoining  the  mausoleum,  and  that  one 
of  the  Varian  family,  probably  Helagabalus,  must  have 
removed  it  to  his  own  racing-ground  by  the  Via  Labi- 
cana.  His  example  was  followed  not  many  years  later 
by  Maxentius,  who  removed  Domitian's  obelisk  from 
the  Stadium  (Piazza  Navona)  to  the  circus  near  Metella's 
grave  on  the  Appian  Way.  Pope  Innocent  X  in  1651  and 
Pope  Pius  VII  in  1822  set  matters  right  once  more, 
the  first  by  bringing  back  (unconsciously)  the  monolith 
to  its  old  location,  the  other  by  setting  up  Antinous' 
needle  *'in  Grenzfelde  der  Herrin  des  Genusses  Hrome," 
in  full  view  of  Hadrian's  mausoleum. 

In  my  experience  of  Roman  and  suburban  excava- 
tion, I  have  come  in  contact  with  this  exquisite  type  of 
manhood  at  least  a  dozen  times:  once,  I  remember,  in 
the  woodland  of  Isola  Farnese,  where  a  laborer  had  just 
struck  with  his  plough  the  left  shoulder  of  a  bust.  I 
helped  to  disengage  it  from  the  earth,  and  shall  never 
forget  the  sight  of  that  lovely  face  suddenly  appearing 
amidst  such  desolate  surroundings  and  looking  at  us 
two  with  a  melancholy  expression,  as  if  we  had  dis- 
turbed the  peace  of  his  grave. 

I  remember  also  how,  in  the  year  1886,  while  the 
foundations  of  the  Banca  d'  Italia  were  being  laid  at 
the  corner  of  the  Via  de  Serpen ti  and  the  Via  Nazionale, 
a  full-sized  portrait  statue,  under  the  attributes  of  Bac- 
chus, was  found  standing  upright  in  the  studio  of  a 
mediaeval  sculptor.  He  had  probably  discovered  it 
among  the  ruins  of  the  villa  of  L.  Funisulanius  Vetto- 
nianus,  at  the  eighth  milestone  of  the  Via  Nomentana, 
on  the  banks  of  the  stream  of  Marco  Simone,  and  had 
it  removed  to  his  workshop,  so  that  he  might  feast  his 
eyes  on  the  beautiful  subject  and  derive  artistic  inspira- 
tions from  it.   That  such  was  the  case,  and  that  even 


THE  LAND   OF  HADRIAN 


185 


the  stolid  mediseval  artists  were  struck  by  the  exquisite 
harmony  of  the  form  of  Antinous,  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  the  figure  of  the  Baptist  from  the  ciborium  of  San 
Matteo  in  Merulana,  now  preserved  in  the  cloister  of 
St.  John  the  Lateran,  is  modelled  ad  vivum  from  an 
Antinous. 

The  latest  discovery  in  connection  with  this  subject 
was  made  on  the  farm  of 
Torre  del  Padiglione,  an 
estate  of  eight  thousand 
acres,  which  the  "Societa 
Italiana  de'  Beni  Rustici" 
has  just  purchased  from 
the  ducal  house  of  the 
Massimo.  This  farm  is 
crossed  by  two  highroads, 
one  leading  from  Lanu- 
vium  to  Antium,  the  other 
from  Rome  to  Satricum. 
Near  their  junction,  on  a 
knoll  which  rises  some 
thirty  or  thirty-five  feet 
above  the  level  of  the 
plain,  among  the  remains 
of  an  ancient  farmhouse, 
the  bas-relief  reproduced 
on  this  page  was  brought 
to  light  in  October,  1907. 
The  discovery  came  about 
by  accident,  while  work- 
men were  digging  the 
earth  to  plant  a  vineyard 
on  the  southern  slope  of  the  knoll.  The  bas-relief  lay  face 
downward  on  a  bed  of  loose  earth,  which  seemed  to 


The  Antinous  of  Antonianus,  discovered 
at  Torre  del  Padiglione 


186    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

have  been  sifted  on  purpose  to  receive  and  shelter  the 
sculpture.  It  is  not  possible  that  it  should  have  fallen 
into  that  position  by  accident  on  the  occasion  of  a  fire 
or  of  an  earthquake.  It  must  have  been  carried  to  the 
spot,  outside  the  boundary  of  the  house,  and  hidden 
with  a  purpose,  at  the  time  of  the  first  barbarian  incur- 
sions, by  the  servants  of  the  house  itself.  We  must  not 
forget  that  Torre  del  Padiglione  once  formed  part  of 
the  fertile  territory  of  Lanuvium,  as  favorite  a  place  for 
summer  residence  as  Tusculum  itself,  where  Antinous 
and  Silvanus  had  been  elected  patron  saints  of  the  em- 
ployees of  the  aristocratic  villas,  as  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  mention  again  at  length  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  portrait  is  carved  in  Pentelic  marble,  and  it  is 
as  fresh  and  perfect  as  if  it  had  just  emerged  from  the 
workshop.  The  god-hero  is  represented  as  a  young 
peasant  attending  to  the  vintage,  the  only  sign  of  his 
apotheosis  being  a  wreath  of  pine  leaves,  and  the  altar 
with  the  pine  cone.  The  artist's  conception  was  obvi- 
ously to  represent  an  Antinous-Silvanus.  •  This  artist, 
this  producer  of  a  panel  deserving  to  be  placed  beside 
the  Palestrina  statue,  the  Mondragone  bust,  and  the 
Albani  bas-relief,  has  signed  his  name  on  the  altar: 
*'This  is  the  work  of  Antonianus  from  Aphrodisias." 
These  words  mean  that  he  belonged  to  that  brother- 
hood of  Greco-Roman  sculptors  which  had  opened  a 
studio  and  a  workshop  on  the  Esquiline  near  the  Sette 
Sale,  discovered  (and  illustrated  by  Visconti)  in  1878. 
For  us,  however,  the  appearance  of  this  divine  youth  at 
the  Torre  del  Padiglione,  until  lately  a  malarious  and 
deserted  spot,  bordering  on  the  Pontine  district,  almost 
out  of  reach  of  civilization,  means  something  more: 
we  take  it  as  an  omen  of  success  in  the  struggle  of  the 
present  generation  against  the  two  great  evils  of  the 


THE  LAND   OF  HADRIAN  187 

Campagna,  unhealthiness  and  depopulation.  Surely  it 
cannot  be  a  trick  of  fate  that  on  the  day  when  workmen 
had  been  directed  to  that  knoll  to  try  an  experiment  in 
vine  growing,  Antinous  should  appear  in  the  garb  of 
a  sylvan  god,  attending  to  the  vintage,  with  bunches 
of  luscious  grapes  hanging  in  profusion  from  his  own 
vines. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT 

NO  other  section  of  the  Campagna  can  bear  com- 
parison with  the  Land  of  Gregory  the  Great  as 
regards  the  association  of  natural  beauty  with 
historical  interest.  Canons  four  hundred  feet  deep, 
like  that  of  the  Forme  Rotte,  over  the  yawning  depths 
of  which  aqueducts  were  once  carried  by  great  spans  of 
masonry;  glens,  like  the  Valle  dell'  Acqua  Rossa,  where 
the  genista  incloses,  in  a  frame  of  gold,  fields  of  violets 
and  primroses ;  chasms,  like  the  one  of  San  Giovanni  in 
Camporaccio,  resembling  a  leafy  amphitheatre  sunk 
in  the  earth;  dolomitic  crags,  like  the  Vulturella,  with 
a  fall  of  two  thousand  feet;  colossal  bridges,  like  the 
Ponte  Lupo,  carrying  across  the  ravine  of  the  Valle  dei 
Morti  four  aqueducts,  a  carriage  road,  and  a  footpath, 
as  perfect  as  if  they  were  the  work  of  living  man;  vil- 
lages, like  Guadagnolo,  perching  at  the  height  of  4019 
feet  above  the  sea;  others,  like  San  Gregorio,  Casape, 
or  Poli,  nestling  in  the  shade  of  their  old  baronial  cas- 
tles; Roman  roads,  like  the  Contrevio,  winding  up  the 
hillsides,  and  none  the  worse  for  the  wear  of  two  thou- 
sand years;  mediaeval  fortifications,  like  the  Rocchetta, 
Sant'  Angelo,  or  Castel  Faustiniano,  raised  on  platforms 
of  the  megalithic  age;  ancient  churches,  like  that  of  Sant' 
Angelo  in  Arcese,  standing,  on  the  remains  of  famous 
heathen  sanctuaries;  villas,  like  Gericomio  or  the  Catena, 
in  which  the  memories  of  bygone  Roman  conquerors  are 
linked  with  those  of  modern  makers  of  history;  olive 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   189 

groves,  shady  byways,  clusters  of  ancient  ilexes,  luxu- 
riant vineyards,  golden  grain  fields  and  fragrant  mead- 
ows, —  each  of  these  landmarks,  taken  by  itself,  would 
make  any  countryside  conspicuous;  taken  together  they 
make  of  the  Land  of  Gregory  the  gem  of  the  Campagna. 
Gregory  was  born  of  Gordianus  the  Senator  and  of 
Sylvia,  in  their  ancestral  home  on  the  Cselian,  facing  the 
palace  of  the  Caesars,  at  the  corner  of  the  Via  Trium- 
phalis  (Via  di  S.  Gregorio)  and  the  Clivus  Scauri  (Via 
dei  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo),  on  the  site  of  the  church 
since  dedicated  to  his  name.  The  date  of  his  birth  is 
unknown.  We  gather,  however,  from  his  writings  that 
about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  he  was  of  sufficient 
age  to  remember  the  horrors  of  the  siege  of  549  —  the 
second  which  Rome  underwent  at  the  hands  of  King 
Totila.  De  Rossi  has  proved  in  the  first  volume  of  "In- 
scriptiones  Christianse"  that  his  family  was  a  branch  of 
the  Anicii,  the  noblest  amongst  the  nobles,  and  that  he 
counted  amongst  his  ancestors  Pope  Felix  IIL  Two  of 
his  aunts,  Tarsilla  and  iEmiliana,  as  well  as  his  parents, 
are  registered  among  the  saints  of  the  church.  His 
election  in  590  took  place  among  calamities  unprece- 
dented in  the  annals  of  the  city.  A  winter  of  incessant 
rains  and  raging  storms  had  caused  the  rivers  to  overflow 
their  banks,  turning  the  valleys  of  the  Po,  the  Arno,  and 
the  Tiber  into  lakes  or  marshes.  The  Tiber  in  particu- 
lar rose  to  such  heights,  and  broke  through  the  walls  of 
the  city  (between  the  Flaminian  gate  and  the  postern  of 
St.  Martin)  with  such  fury,  that  the  classic  edifices  of  the 
Campus  Martins,  temples,  baths,  theatres  were  over- 
thrown, as  well  as  the  granaries  at  the  foot  of  the  Aven- 
tine,  where  great  quantities  of  wheat  had  been  stored  for 
the  support  of  the  refugees  from  all  parts  of  the  Peninsula. 
And  while  the  people  were  thus  left  to  stare  famine  in 


190    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  face,  and  to  live  in  silt  and  mud,  the  bubonic,  or 
inguinary,  plague,  imported  from  Constantinople  by 
a  Byzantine  grain  ship  trading  at  the  Schola  Grseca,^ 
broke  out,  first  in  the  quarters  adjoining  the  river,  later 
even  in  the  usually  healthy  heights  of  the  Esquiline  and 
the  Cselian.  Gregory  of  Tours  has  left  a  detailed  account 
of  the  outbreak,  and  the  Pope  himself  more  than  once 
mentioned  it  in  the  "Dialogues,"  so  that  all  through  the 
middle  ages  the  people  spoke  of  it  as  of  an  event  never 
to  be  forgotten.  One  of  the  first  victims  was  Gregory's 
predecessor,  Pelagius  II.  He  died  on  February  5,  590, 
and  was  buried  with  due  solemnity  in  St.  Peter's,  a  fact 
which  shows  how  much  sanitary  precautions  were  dis- 
regarded at  that  time.  From  that  day  men  fell  a  prey 
to  the  plague  by  thousands,  many  cities,  among  them 
the  Portus  Augusti,  losing  the  whole  of  their  population. 
Earthly  remedies  failing  to  stamp  out  the  contagion, 
the  Romans  did  what  the  Milanese  are  said  to  have 
done,  in  Manzoni's  '*  Promessi  Sposi,"  at  the  outbreak  of 
1630:  they  urged  their  pastor  to  start  a  great  procession 
of  penitence.  Divided  according  to  sex,  age,  and  station 
in  life,  they  moved  from  seven  starting  points  towards  the 
Basilica  Liberiana;  the  clergy  from  SS.  Cosma  e  Dami- 
ano,  religious  communities  from  SS.  Gervasio  e  Protasio,^ 
nuns  from  SS.  Pietro  e  Marcellino,  children  from  SS. 
Giovanni  e  Paolo,  widows  from  S.  Eufemia,  married 
women  from  S.  Clemente,  men  from  S.  Stefano  Rotondo. 
The  results  of  this  congestion  of  people,  more  or  less 
tainted  with  the  germs  of  the  contagion,  are  easily  fore- 
seen. In  the  space  of  one  hour  eighty  members  of  the 
entourage  of  the  Pope  fell  to  mark  with  their  corpses 

^  The  Byzantine  Exchange   and  Chamber  of    Commerce  near  the 
Church  of  S.  Maria  in  Cosmedin. 
'  Now  called  S.  Vitale. 


H 

a 
<■ 

Q 

3 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   193 

the  path  of  the  procession.  The  fact  that  the  goal  of 
this  litania  septiformis  ^  was  the  Esquiline  basilica  of  S. 
Maria  Maggiore  shows  how  groundless  is  the  tradition 
concerning  the  apparition  of  the  angel  sheathing  his 
sword,  on  the  summit  of  Hadrian's  mausoleum,  to  an- 
nounce that  the  wrath  of  God  would  claim  no  more 
victims.  The  tradition  is  far  more  recent  than  the 
events  to  which  it  refers,  and  owes  its  origin  to  a  shrine 
of  Michael  the  Archangel  erected  at  an  unknown  date, 
on  the  highest  platform  of  the  mausoleum,  where  the 
image  of  the  deified  Emperor  had  once  stood. 

Records  of  this  "annee  terrible"  are  still  extant  in 
Rome.  Leaving  aside  the  bronze  figure  of  the  archan- 
gel, from  which  the  Castle  of  Sant'  Angelo  is  named, 
there  is  an  inscription  in  the  church  of  San  Lorenzo  fuori 
le  Mura  describing  how  that  edifice  had  been  repaired 
by  Pelagius  II  *'gladios  hostiles  inter  et  iras"  (amid 
the  clangor  of  swords  and  onslaughts  from  the  enemy). 
The  enemy  at  that  time  were  the  Langobards,  who  had 
invaded  Italy  by  the  Predil  Pass  in  the  Alps  of  Carnia, 
and  shown  no  mercy  to  the  defenceless  populations. 
Of  uncouth  and  fearsome  aspect,  and  imbued  with  a 
hatred  of  whatever  bore  or  had  borne  a  Roman  name  or 
a  connection  with  Rome,  these  German  worshippers  of 
Odin  swept  over  the  Peninsula  like  the  scourge  of  God, 
fire,  blood,  and  the  stillness  of  death  marking  their  ad- 
vance. 

These  are  not  conventional  phrases  such  as  are  com- 
monly used  on  the  subject  of  a  barbarian  inroad;  they 
are  the  very  words  which  Gregory  wrote  in  *' Dialogue" 
iii,  38:  *'As  the  unsheathed  sword  strikes  the  neck  of 
the  victim,  so  fell  upon  us  the  fury  of  the  Langobards. 
As  thick  as  the  ears  of  corn  on  a  fruitful  field,  our  fellow- 

^  Litany,  in  the  sense  of  procession, 


194    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

citizens  have  been  trampled  upon,  and  crushed  and  laid 
prone  on  the  ground.  Cities  have  ceased  to  exist;  our 
castles  have  been  dismantled,  our  monasteries  violated, 
our  farms  destroyed ;  our  churches  are  but  a  smouldering 
heap  of  ruins.  We  live  in  the  wilderness,  where  beasts 
occupy  the  former  haunts  of  men."  The  coming  "finis 
mundi"  had  already  been  predicted  by  Pelagius  II  in 
his  "  Admonestation "  to  the  dissenting  patriarch  of 
Aquileia,  Elias.  No  wonder  that  the  lower  classes,  deci- 
mated at  the  same  time  by  famine  and  wars,  by  inunda- 
tions, fires,  and  earthquakes,  shared  the  belief. 

In  such  dire  straits  the  figure  of  Gregory,  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  his  fellow-citizens  from  a  humble  monastic 
cell  of  the  Cselian,  appears  radiant  in  a  halo  of  glory. 
His  attempt  to  evade  by  flight  the  election  to  the  vacant 
see  having  been  frustrated,  the  reluctant  cenobite  was 
crowned  in  St.  Peter's  on  September  3,  590.  Judging 
from  his  personal  appearance  no  one  seemed  less  quali- 
fied for  the  task  of  saving  the  country  from  annihilation. 
He  was  small  of  size  and  so  emaciated  from  vigils  and 
ill-health  that  most  of  the  time  he  was  obliged  to  recline 
on  his  couch,  hanging  between  life  and  death.  His  voice 
was  so  feeble  that  his  homilies  were  usually  read  by  an 
assistant.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  Rusticana  the  Patri- 
cian he  mentions  without  the  least  complaint  how  acute 
dyspepsia  had  made  of  him  a  living  skeleton  and  how 
gout  had  crippled  him  to  immobility.  And  yet  this 
cripple,  who  believed  in  the  approaching  end  of  the 
world,  stood  his  ground  unflinchingly  to  the  last,  saved 
Rome  and  Italy,  and  found  time  to  link  his  name  to 
such  institutions  as  the  Schola  Cantorum,  which  still  sur- 
vives in  the  "Gregorian  Chant";  the  Regula  Pastor  alls  ^ 
which  became  for  the  episcopate  and  the  clergy  what 
the  Rules  of  St.  Benedict  were  for  monastic  orders;  the 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   195 

Sacramentarium,  from  which  the  present  missal  of  the 
Catholic  Church  is  derived;  and  the  evangelization  of 
the  British  Isles. 

When  we  come  to  think  that  the  ancestral  home  of 
this  great  man  on  the  Cselian  still  lies  unexplored  under 
and  near  the  present  church,  and  that  it  would  be  an 
easy  undertaking  to  excavate  and  make  it  accessible,  as 
has  been  done  for  the  house  of  John  and  Paul  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street,  for  that  of  his  mother  Sylvia 
at  San  Saba  on  the  Aventine,  and  for  that  of  S.  Csecilia 
in  the  Trastevere,  we  wonder  at  our  own  indifference 
in  the  face  of  such  problems.  A  committee  was  formed, 
to  be  sure,  for  this  purpose  in  1891,  under  the  presidency 
of  Cardinal  Manning,  titular  of  the  church,  of  which  the 
mayor  of  Rome,  the  late  Comm.  de  Rossi,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Grisar,  and  myself  were  members.  The  necessary  funds 
had  already  been  collected,  and  the  last  arrangements 
perfected,  when  the  unwarranted  opposition  and  chau- 
vinism of  certain  government  officials  caused  the  col- 
lapse of  the  scheme.  Were  we  to  take  it  up  again  under 
the  present  enlightened  administration,  I  am  sure  that 
no  difficulties  would  be  raised  against  its  accomplish- 
ment. Among  the  chances  offered  by  the  exploration  of 
the  palace,  there  is  one  sufficient  by  itself  to  justify  any 
expenditure  or  labor  —  the  chance  of  bringing  to  light 
the  portrait  of  Gregory  described  by  John  the  Deacon. 
The  Pope  himself  had  presented  his  former  fellow- 
monks  with  this  touching  memento,  that  they  might  not 
forget  their  happy  common  life  while  he  was  adminis- 
tering the  church  from  the  pontifical  palace.  It  was  in 
the  shape  of  a  clypeus  or  medallion  set  into  a  plaster 
frame,  in  which  he  appeared  clad  in  priestly  robes, 
standing,  with  the  book  of  the  Gospels  in  his  left  hand, 
while  the  right  was  raised  in  the  act  of  blessing.    His 


196    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIMAN   CAMPAGNA 

features  were  of  the  true  patrician  type,  marked  by  an 
aquiline  nose,  broad,  low  forehead,  projecting  chin,  and 
small,  flashing  eyes. 

The  connection  between  Gregory  the  Great  and  the 
lands  we  are  visiting  in  this  chapter  is  established  by 
the  fact  of  his  having  disposed  of  them  in  favor  of  his 
brother  monks.  He  must  therefore  have  inherited  these 
vast  possessions  from  his  ancestors,  the  Anicii.  The 
original  act  of  donation  is  lost,  but  we  have  in  its  stead 
a  papyrus  of  Pope  John  XIV,  dated  a.  d.  984,  confirm- 
ing the  deed.  It  begins  with  the  words,  '*!  offer  to  thee, 
abbot  of  the  monastery  ad  Clivum  Scauri,  the  estate  in 
which  stands  the  church  of  St.  Gregory  within  the  New 
Castle  [the  present  village  of  San  Gregorio],  another 
called  Casacorvuli  [the  present  village  of  Casape],  and 
the  farms  named  *Hope,'  *the  Hundred  Acres,'  etc., 
adjoining  each  other,  with  their  buildings,  ancient  ruins, 
and  columns,  all  located  in  the  territory  of  Tibur,  about 
twenty-four  miles  from  Rome." 

The  same  provisions  are  made  as  regards  the  group 
of  hills  known  by  the  name  of  Vulturella  crowned  by  the 
church  of  St.  Mary  (the  present  sanctuary  of  the  Men- 
torella),  a  group  which  has  a  history  of  its  own,  not  un- 
worthy of  our  attention.  Athanasius  Kircher,  one  of  the 
most  genial  archaeological  blunderers  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  relates  how,  in  the  year  1661,  having  started 
from  Tivoli  to  make  the  ascent  of  the  Vulturella,  he 
found  himself  at  noon  in  a  "wilderness  full  of  horror," 
where  crags  seemed  to  strike  the  skies  and  precipices  to 
"  plunge  into  hell " ;  and  while  the  awfulness  of  such  sur- 
roundings held  him  spellbound,  he  spied  through  a  gap 
what  appeared  to  be  the  roofless  shell  of  a  human  habi- 
tation. On  closer  inspection  he  found  himself  entering 
a  deserted  church  of  great  antiquity,  and  full  of  inter- 


THE  .STATUE  OF  bT.   (JliEGUKY  BY  NICOLO  CORDIERI,  A  PUPIL 
OF  MICHELANGELO 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   199 

esting  remains.  There  were  patches  of  frescoes  on  the 
walls,  with  quaint  figures  of  saints,  and  bits  of  stone 
copings  such  as  the  school  of  the  Cosmati  used  to  carve 
at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  On  the  altar, 
screened  by  a  railing  rusty  with  age,  stood  a  carven 
image  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  green  with  mould,  whose 
expression  was  that  of  sorrow  and  reproach  at  her  pre- 
sent environments.  From  fragmentary  inscriptions  of 
uncouth  spelling,  Kircher  gathered  how  fate  had  led 
him  to  a  sanctuary  once  a  famous  goal  for  pilgrimages, 
marking  the  spot  where  Christ  appeared  to  Placidus,  a 
leader  of  the  Roman  armies  and  a  martyr  for  the  faith. 

On  reaching  the  village  of  Guadagnolo,  Kircher 
spoke  of  his  find  to  the  local  priest,  who  was  conversant 
with  the  history  and  traditions  of  his  native  mountains, 
and  with  the  help  of  the  Conti  and  of  some  pious  vil- 
lagers they  undertook  the  restoration  of  the  sanctuary, 
which  became  again  and  still  remains  a  centre  of  reli- 
gious meetings  for  people  many  miles  around. 

The  account  of  the  conversion  and  fate  of  Placidus 
Eustachius,  as  given  by  hagiographists,  is  a  tissue  of  the 
most  absurd  and  impossible  circumstances  that  the 
fancy  of  a  religious  story-teller  could  produce.  But  as, 
wandering  through  these  lovely  mountains,  the  student 
of  the  past  meets  at  every  step  memorials  of  the  hero; 
as  the  story  is  corroborated  to  a  certain  extent  by  ma- 
terial details  which  can  be  seen  at  the  present  day;  and 
as  Placidus  Eustachius  is  the  recognized  head  of  the 
Conti  dynasty,  which  has  ruled  over  this  district  ever 
since  the  time  of  Innocent  III  (1198-1216),  I  hope  the 
reader  will  not  object  to  listening  to  the  version  of  the 
story  given  by  Kircher  in  Part  I  of  his  '*  Historia  Eusta- 
chio-Mariana,"  published  in  Rome  by  Varesi  in  1665. 


200    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

THE    LEGEND    OF    EUSTACHIUS 

At  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Trajan  and  of  Pope 
Anacletus,  there  lived  a  gallant  general,  Placidus  by 
name,  who,  having  distinguished  himself  in  the  Dacian 
and  Jewish  wars,  and  shared  in  the  Emperor's  triumph, 
was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  and  retired  to  rest  in  his 


The  church  of  S.  Maria  di  Vulturella.    (From  a  sketch  by  Giovanni  Fontana) 

properties  on  the  Vulturella  range,  together  with  his 
wife  Traiana  and  his  two  sons. 

One  morning,  upon  learning  from  his  gamekeeper 
that  a  herd  of  stags  had  been  seen  on  the  edge  of  the 
neighboring  forest,  he  outdistanced  his  followers  in  the 
excitement  of  the  chase,  until  he  found  his  progress 
barred  by  a  ledge  of  rock;  and  while  planning  how  to 
overcome  this  obstacle,  he  heard  a  voice  from  above 
saying:  "O  Placidus,  why  do  you  persecute  me  ?"  and 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   201 

beheld  at  the  same  time  the  Lord's  face,  surrounded  by 
a  halo  of  glory,  between  the  antlers  of  the  stag  he  had 
been  pursuing. 

"O  Lord,"  was  Placidus'  answer,  "tell  me  who  you 
are,  and  what  you  expect  of  me  ?" 

"Go  back  to  Rome,"  was  the  heavenly  command; 
"inquire  for  a  Christian  priest  named  Johan;  be  bap- 
tized with  your  wife  and  your  sons ;  then  return  to  these 
mountains  to  learn  what  1  wish  you  to  do  and  suffer  for 
me." 

Placidus  obeyed  implicitly;  the  parents  were  baptized 
by  Johan,  exchanging  their  names  for  those  of  Eusta- 
chius  and  Theopista,  the  sons  for  those  of  Agapitus  and 
Theopistus;  and  the  castle  of  Vulturella  was  trans- 
formed into  a  species  of  monastery.  However,  the  era 
of  peace  did  not  last  long  for  the  converts.  First  an 
outbreak  of  plague  carried  away  every  servant  and 
laborer  till  the  four  neophytes  remained  the  only  living 
creatures  for  miles  around.  They  decided,  therefore,  to 
undertake  a  pilgrimage  of  expiation  to  the  East,  but  the 
captain  of  the  ship  on  which  they  were  crossing  to 
Egypt  conceived  such  an  ardent  love  for  Theopista  that 
he  refused  to  part  with  her  upon  reaching  land;  thus 
Eustachius  and  his  sons  were  left  alone  upon  a  barren 
shore,  watching  the  sails  disappear  below  the  horizon. 

Eustachius,  carrying  the  boys  in  his  arms,  started  for 
an  exploration  along  the  shore,  but  his  progress  was 
soon  checked  by  a  stream  which  he  found  impossible  to 
ford  with  his  double  burden ;  so,  leaving  Theopistus  on 
the  bank,  he  carried  Agapitus  over  to  the  opposite 
shore,  and  had  just  reached  the  middle  of  the  stream  on 
his  way  back  when  he  beheld  a  lion  on  one  side,  and  a 
wolf  on  the  other,  seize  the  children  and  disappear  with 
their  prey  into  the  bushes  among  the  sand  hills. 


202    WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

Left  wifeless  and  childless,  Eustachius  wandered  far- 
ther along  the  coast  till,  weary  and  footsore,  he  reached 
a  village  named  Badisus,  where  a  kind  and  honest 
landowner  gave  him  food  and  shelter,  and  employment 
on  his  farm.  There  Eustachius  lived  for  many  years, 
beloved  by  every  one,  as  manager  of  the  estate.  One 
eventful  day,  however,  having  been  identified,  by  means 
of  a  scar  on  his  neck,  by  two  officers,  Achatius  and 
Antiochus,  whom  Trajan  had  sent  to  Egypt  in  quest 
of  the  missing  general,  Eustachius  bowed  to  the  imperial 
will,  and  was  received  triumphally  at  Rome  by  the 
court,  the  senate,  and  the  people,  and  reinstated  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Roman  armies  by  Hadrian, 
who  in  the  mean  time  had  succeeded  to  the  throne. 

Then  followed  another  campaign  in  the  East,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  general's  attention  was  arrested  one 
day  by  the  appearance  of  a  couple  of  fine,  stalwart 
youths,  who  were  engaged  to  act  as  guides  for  the  sol- 
diers. Seated  by  the  camp-fire,  these  two  young  men 
were  giving  an  account  of  their  strange  fortunes  since 
the  far-off  hour  in  their  childhood  when  they  had  been 
delivered  from  the  jaws  of  a  lion  and  a  wolf;  and  a 
woman  clothed  in  rags,  who  at  that  moment  happened 
to  bring  some  provisions  into  the  camp,  overheard  the 
story.  She  pieced  the  names  and  dates  and  details  to- 
gether, and  was  convinced  that  the  commander  was 
her  long-lost  husband,  the  young  giants  her  sons ;  in  her 
humble  attire,  she  waited  her  turn  among  the  crowd  of 
audience-seekers,  and,  once  admitted  to  Placidus'  pre- 
sence, she  knelt  at  his  feet,  and  poured  forth  the  tale  of 
her  own  adventures  from  the  moment  of  her  abduction, 
through  her  long  years  of  honest  labor  on  a  farm,  till 
the  moment  when  her  family  had  thus  been  marvel- 
lously restored  to  her. 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   203 


Tahuljt  'J'yPVJ-  aiui  ncd'.:.-:n^  £:cU/ia  Tji^fi^''^  £.Aach\im!T  aJJ^hitftt^FapcI/mta  fii 


The  consecration  of  the  church  of  the  Vulturella  by  Pope  Sylvester  I,  with 
the  apparition  of  the  stag.  (From  a  rude  carving  in  wood  preserved  in 
the  church) 


There  were  rejoicings  all  over  the  frontier  and  in  the 
Roman  camp  and  stations ;  there  was  another  triumphal 
return  to  Rome,  in  which  Theopista  and  the  young 
men  attracted  as  much  attention  as  the  barbarian  kings 
who  followed  the  victor's  chariot;  and  Hadrian  made 
Eustachius  his  partner  in  the  government  of  the  world. 
However,  matters  came  to  an  unexpected  crisis.  The 
Emperor  having  asked  his  favorite  why  he  had  so  con- 
spicuously absented  himself  from  the  thanksgiving  sac- 
rifices offered  to  the  gods,  and  having  been  frankly 
told  of  the  latter's  conversion  to  Christianity,  the  whole 
family  was  sentenced  ad  feras,  to  be  devoured  by  wild 
beasts.  The  legend  naturally  tells  us  that  the  wild  beasts 
refused  to  comply  with  the  Emperor's  wishes,  much  to 


204    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

the  astonishment  and  regret  of  the  great  multitudes 
assembled  in  the  Coliseum.  So  the  victims  were  placed 
inside  the  bull  of  Phalaris:  but  when  the  executioners 
went  to  open  the  trap-door  to  collect  the  ashes  of  the 
four  victims,  they  found  their  bodies  intact,  as  though 
they  were  merely  sleeping  the  sleep  of  the  just. 

The  beautiful  mountain-castle  on  the  Vulturella,  the 
birthplace  of  the  hero  of  this  story,  where  his  first  years 
of  married  life  were  spent  in  happiness  and  in  pursuit 
of  the  manly  sports  of  mountaineering  and  hunting, 
was  discovered  and  excavated  in  the  year  1744  by  the 
peasants  of  San  Gregorio,  on  a  spur  of  the  range  over- 
looking the  valley  and  the  site  of  Empulum.  The  ruins 
are  still  called  Santa  Sigola,a  corruption  of  Sylvia,  whose 
name,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  is  often  linked  in 
local  tradition  to  that  of  Placidus,  on  account  of  their 
kinship  and  their  common  descent  from  the  Anicii.  The 
plan  and  description  of  the  excavations  of  1744  can  be 
found  in  Alberto  Cassio's  valuable  book,  the  title  of 
which — characteristic  of  the  verbosity  of  the  eighteenth 
century  writers  —  runs  as  follows:  "Historical  Memo- 
ries of  the  Life  of  Santa  Sylvia,  a  Roman  matron,  mother 
of  Pope  Saint  Gregory  the  Great,  with  an  illustration  of 
her  lands  and  possessions  in  Latium,  crossed  by  the  four 
aqueducts  which  carried  to  Rome  the  distant  waters  of 
the  Marcia,  the  Claudia,  and  the  two  Anieni,  lands  and 
possessions  which  once  belonged  to  the  glorious  martyr 
Saint  Eustachius,  who  owned  a  villa  with  baths  (on  the 
Vulturella)  discovered  in  the  year  1744:  the  present 
work  dedicated  to  his  Eminence  the  Cardinal  Neri  Cor- 
sini,  titular  of  the  church  of  Sant'  Eustachio  in  Rome, 
1755."  What  most  impresses  the  reader  of  Cassio's  ac- 
count is  the  pride  which  ancient  villa-builders  took  in 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   205 

defying  impossibilities.  Here  was  a  villa  built  on  a 
shoulder  of  rock  nearly  three  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea,  among  virgin  forests,  accessible  only  by  devious 
paths  and  mule  tracks,  beautified  and  ornamented  on 
such  a  lavish  scale  as  to  cast  into  the  shade  many  of  the 
best  mansions  of  Tusculum  and  Tibur :  porticoes  of  Ori- 
ental columns,  exquisite  mosaic  floors,  swimming  ponds 
lined  with  marble,  walls  decorated  with  gilt  stucco- 
reliefs  and  frescoed  panels,  apartments  furnished  with 
warming  apparatus,  terraces  from  the  parapet  of  which 
the  eye  looks  down  into  the  Valle  Empolitana,  two 
thousand  feet  below,  and  ranges  over  the  hills  of  Castel 
Madama  and  Saracinesco,  as  far  as  the  Apennines  of 
Cervara  and  Gerano,  shining  with  a  fresh  coat  of  snow.^ 
In  the  middle  ages  a  monastery  was  founded  within 
the  roofless  halls  of  the  villa  by  the  followers  of  St.  Bene- 
dict. The  congregation  lingered  in  this  wilderness  for  a 
number  of  years,  until  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
(a.  d.  1386),  when  the  few  survivors  were  deprived  of 
their  shelter  by  a  conflagration  which  turned  the  old 
hospice  into  a  heap  of  ashes.  Such  was  the  violence  of 
the  flames,  and  such  was  the  haste  of  the  wretched 
monks  to  escape,  that  nothing  was  saved,  not  even  the 
utensils  of  the  refectory  nor  the  provisions  of  the  larder. 
Cassio  describes  the  finding  of  a  quantity  of  spoons  and 
knives,  of  a  mass  of  toasted  beans,  and  of  the  granary 
with  its  earthen  jars  still  full  of  wheat. 

^  (April  6,  1909.)  The  ruins  of  Santa  Sigola  were  so  maltreated  by  the 
peasantry  in  1744,  deceived  in  their  expectations  of  finding  the  body  of  the 
holy  woman,  that  it  is  hardly  worth  while  climbing  272!2  feet  to  see  them 
in  their  present  crumbling  state.  They  can  be  reached  by  a  direct  steep 
ascent  of  two  hours  from  the  Osteria  d'  Ampiglione  (on  the  Ceciliano  road) 
or  by  a  longer  and  easier  path  from  the  village  of  San  Gregorio,  by  the 
Costa  del  Lago  and  the  Monte  Pagliaro. 


206    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  memory  of  Eustachius  in  Rome  still  survives  in  a 
church  built  in  the  eighth  century  over  the  remains  of  the 
Thermae  of  Severus  Alexander.  It  is  mentioned  in  the 
"Liber  Pontificalis "  in  the  lives  of  Leo  III  (795)  and 
Gregory  IV  (827).    It  was  very  rich  in  productions  of 


The  Ampiglione  Valley  with  Ceciliano  in  the  distance,  the  mountain  of  Santa 
Sigola  on  the  right,  the  mediaeval  castle  of  Ampiglione  on  the  left.  The 
path  leading  to  the  ruins  of  the  villa  of  Eustachius  is  distinctly  visible  in  the 
illustration 


mediaeval  art  before  its  hideous  modernization  by  An- 
tonio Canevari  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. The  main  door  had  been  carved  in  marble  by  one 
of  the  Cosmati  school,  at  the  expense  of  a  Johannes; 
the  tabernacle  at  the  expense  of  Ottonello,  believed  to 
be  the  son  of  Ramone,  Count  of  Tusculum  and  Lord  of 
Algidum;  while  two  of  the  columns  of  the  nave  bore  the 
inscription :  "  Erected  at  the  expense  of  the  Lady  Ste- 
phania  for  the  salvation  of  her  soul  and  of  the  souls  of  her 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   207 

husband  and  children."  Another  inscription  engraved 
on  the  alabaster  urn  which  supported  the  high  altar  says : 
"Here  lie  in  the  peace  of  God  the  bodies  of  the  holy 
martyrs  Eustachius,  Theopista,  and  their  sons  Agapitus 
and  Theopistus.  I,  Pope  Coelestinus  III  .  .  .  have  seen 
with  my  eyes  and  touched  with  my  hands  their  relics, 
and  have  inclosed  them  in  this  urn  together  with  an 
ancient  epitaph  mentioning  their  names."  The  tradi- 
tional symbol  of  the  cross  between  the  antlers  of  a  stag 
still  towers  as  a  pinnacle  above  the  pediment  of  the 
facade. 

But  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  land  of  St.  Gregory,  and 
to  the  powerful  race  which  has  ruled  over  it  since  the 
middle  ages. 

Sixtus  V  was  right  in  reckoning  the  Conti  as  one  of 
the  four  oldest  and  noblest  families  of  Italy  (Colonna, 
Orsini,  Caetani,  Conti),  although  their  claim  to  descend 
from  the  Anicii  must  be  accepted  cum  grano  salis.  Ac- 
cording to  the  professional  pedigree-makers  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  Anicii  must  have 
been  the  most  prolific  race  in  Rome,  having  given  birth 
to  the  Conti,  the  Pierleoni,  the  Frangipane,  and  the 
imperial  House  of  Hapsburg.  Johan  Sigfried  of  Breslau, 
abbot  of  the  Cistercian  monastery  of  Zweithal,  wrote 
in  1613  two  ponderous  volumes,  "Arbor  Aniciana,  sen 
genealogia  Austrise  principum,"  to  prove  the  case  in 
favor  of  the  Hapsburgs.  His  point  of  view,  as  regards 
the  Conti,  is  shared  by  Marco  Dionigi  and  Nicola  Ratti 
in  their  respective  works,  '*  Genealogia  di  Casa  Conti," 
1669,  and  "Istoria  della  famiglia  Sforza,"  1795.  What- 
ever we  may  think  of  these  futile  attempts  to  carry  back 
the  family  history  into  the  classic  ages,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  Conti  have  numbered  among  their  ancestors 


208    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

thirteen  popes  (whose  aggregate  pontificates  cover  a 
space  of  118  years),  three  antipopes,  forty  cardinals,  a 
queen  of  Antioch  and  Tripoli  (Luciana  Conti,  wife  of 
Boemond  V),  seven  prefects  of  Rome,  five  senators,  and 
thirteen  leaders  of  armies,  all  valiant  and  worthy  cheva- 
liers, like  the  Torquato  Conti  and  his  son  Innocenzo, 
who  so  distinguished  themselves  in  the  defence  of  Prague 
against  the  Swedes.  Such  a  pedigree  ought  to  satisfy  the 
pride  and  ambition  of  any  family,  without  bringing  the 
Anicii  into  it;  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  as  far  back  as 
the  thirteenth  century  the  Conti  claimed  a  relationship 
with  Saints  Gregory  and  Eustache,  their  cardinals  choos- 
ing the  '*titulus  Sancti  Eustachii"  in  preference  to  all 
others,  and  their  popes  the  name  of  Gregory.  Even  to-day 
Sylvia  is  the  favorite  name  with  the  women  of  the  land, 
and  the  annual  gathering  at  La  Mentorella  is  the  most 
popular  festival  of  the  year. 

The  beginning  of  the  "temporal  power"  of  the  Conti 
dates,  as  usual,  from  the  election  of  one  of  them  to  the 
Papacy.  Innocent  III  may  have  been  over-indulgent 
towards  his  kinsmen,  and  may  have  distributed  too  freely 
the  gifts  of  the  Papacy  amongst  them,  but  most  certainly 
he  ranks  among  the  greatest  and  noblest  men  that  ever 
sat  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  From  whatever  point  of 
view  we  consider  him,  the  catholic  of  Hurter,  Bosquet, 
or  Moroni,  or  the  independent  of  Gregorovius,  he  rises 
like  a  giant  as  a  man,  as  a  pope,  as  a  crusader,  as  a  re- 
former, as  a  victorious  antagonist  of  King  Philip  Augus- 
tus of  France,  of  Emperor  Otho  IV  of  Germany,  of  King 
John  of  England,  of  King  Alfonso  VIII  of  Castile,  of 
King  Pedro  II  of  Aragon.  He  sustained  the  suzerainty 
of  the  Papacy  over  Sicily;  settled  feuds  and  controver- 
sies in  Aragon,  Hungary,  Poland,  Norway,  and  Dal- 
matia;   recognized  the  orders  of  St.  Francis  and  St. 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   209 


wmT^gm^,   . 

^1 

^^\ 

* 

^ 

f^^f^ 

m^ 

1   mBS^^^^jk 

1 

■  'I   ';#'  *^^'  ^ 

yi 

*ft 

fc^ 

*  ,1^1' 

'IPfe  "' 

HBi^JSfli^fl 

1 

A  family  group  of  the  Conti.    (From  the  original  picture  now  in  the  Conti-Torlonia 

villa  at  Frascati) 


Dominic;  annulled  the  Magna  Charta  (1215),  and  sent 
out  the  crusade  which  established  the  Latin  rule  at  Con- 
stantinople. Whenever  I  am  in  Perugia,  where  he  died 
July  17,  1216, 1  never  fail  to  pay  homage  to  his  mem- 
ory, regretting  that  he  must  share  his  modest  resting- 
place  with  two  outsiders,  Urban  IV  and  Martin  IV. 


210    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  foundation  of  the  duchy  of  Poli  —  a  state  in  a 
state,  as  it  were,  with  civic  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  a 
local  body  of  gens  d'armes,  a  ducal  flag,  and  other  such 
tokens  of  independence  —  dates  from  the  sixth  of  Octo- 
ber of  the  year  1208,  when  Richard  Conti,  brother  of  the 


The  Porta  Nevola,  on  the  road  to  the  Villa  Catena 
(From  a  photograph  by  Miss  Dora  Bulwer) 

Pope,  was  made  lord  and  baron  of  Poli,  Guadagnolo, 
Saracinesco,  Anticoli,  and  Castel  Faustiniano,  viz.,  of  the 
same  extensive  lands  which  their  former  owner,  Gregory 
the  Great,  had  given  partly  to  the  monks  of  Subiaco, 
partly  to  the  monks  of  the  Clivus  Scauri.  The  Emperor 
Frederic  II  allowed  the  family  to  make  use  of  the  aquila 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   211 

scacchiata  as  a  coat  of  arms,  the  S.  P.  Q.  R.  to  have  it 
on  a  campo  rosso  (on  a  red  field).  The  honorable  and 
honored  career  of  the  Conti  lasted  for  over  six  centuries, 
their  last  representative,  Michelangelo,  having  died  in 
1818,  when  the  historical  duchy  became  the  property 
of  a  self-made  man,  Giovanni  Torlonia,  the  great-grand- 
father of  the  present  owner,  Duke  Leopoldo,  under 
whose  enlightened  care  the  Villa  Catena  has  been  at 
least  saved  from  utter  destruction. 

The  Villa  Catena  lies  on  a  ridge  connecting  Poli  with 
the  Colle  Faustiniano,  at  the  foot  of  Monte  Sant'  Angelo, 
a  landmark  easily  recognized  from  Rome  itself  by  the 
remains  of  the  mediaeval  castle  that  crowns  its  summit. 
The  beauty  of  the  site  did  not  pass  unnoticed  in  Roman 
times,  as  is  shown  by  the  remains  of  baths,  mosaic  pave- 
ments, and  water  reservoirs  brought  to  light  from  time 
to  time  within  the  boundaries  of  the  park.  The  road 
which  leads  to  it  from  Rome  —  a  branch  of  the  ancient 
Prsenestina  —  was  made  again  fit  for  travelling  by  the 
last  Conti  Pope,  Innocent  XIII,  in  1723.  The  gate  of 
the  villa  stands  almost  exactly  at  the  twenty-fifth  mile- 
stone from  the  Porta  Maggiore.  No  records  have  been 
kept  of  its  foundation;  it  certainly  existed  in  a  rudimen- 
tary form,  probably  as  a  home  farm  belonging  to  the 
ducal  palace,  at  the  time  of  Leo  X,  who  dated  from  it 
in  1516  a  bull  investing  the  sons  and  heirs  of  his  host, 
Stefano  Conti,  with  the  office  of  "maestro  del  sacro 
ospizio  apostolico,"  the  same  that  is  now  held  by  the 
Ruspoli  family. 

About  fifty  years  after  the  visit  of  Leo  X,  Torquato 
Conti,  a  veteran  of  many  wars,  spurred  to  competition 
by  the  many  villa-builders  of  his  own  rank  in  life  who 
about  that  time  were  planning  or  laying  out  the  won- 
ders of  Caprarola,  Bagnaia,  Bomarzo,  Tivoli,  Frascati, 


212   WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

and  Formello,  began  the  transformation  of  the  home 
farm  into  a  pleasure-ground,  in  which,  strange  to  say, 
the  leading  part  was  left  to  nature's  own  design.  At 
least  the  place  shows  at  present  less  artificiality  than 
any  other  contemporary  pleasure-ground.  His  adviser 
on  these  matters  was  the  same  poet  and  artist,  Anni- 
bale  Caro,  whom  we  shall  soon  meet  at  Frascati  as 
the  builder  of  the  Cara villa.  They  must  have  met  in  the 
salons  of  the  Farnese  palace,  where  Annibale  was  a 
constant  visitor  while  Torquato  was  paying  his  court  to 
his  future  duchess,  Violante  Farnese.  In  a  letter  dated 
June  6,  1563,  Annibale  urges  his  patron  of  Poli  to 
hasten  the  works  of  the  aqueduct,  otherwise  "the  foun- 
tains and  lakes,  ponds  and  waterfalls  and  jets  already 
designed"  would  remain  lifeless.  "The  deer-park,"  he 
adds,  "  the  rabbit-warrens,  the  dovecots,  the  woods,  and 
the  garden  terraces  already  laid  out  or  built  are  but 
common  features  of  a  villa.  What  we  are  in  need  of  to 
make  a  sensation  on  this  line  are  extravagances  to  cast 
into  the  shade  even  the  Boschetto  of  Messer  Vicino." 
This  refers  to  the  eccentric  country  seat  which  Vicino 
Orsini,  who  had  seen  service  under  the  same  flag  with 
Torquato,  was  building  at  that  time  at  Bomarzo,  the 
ancient  Polimartium,  a  village  of  southern  Etruria  now 
belonging  to  the  Borghese.  Caro  suggests  also  for  the 
Villa  Catena  a  Flemish  windmill,  a  ventilating  or  cool- 
ing apparatus  made  of  wet  sheets  of  canvas,  an  island 
in  the  lake  made  in  imitation  of  the  one  just  discov- 
ered in  the  baths  of  Caracalla,^  and  lastly  a  hydraulic 

*  Described  by  Flaminio  Vacca  in  Mem.,  23.  It  was  a  great  block  of 
marble,  very  much  mutilated,  representing  an  island  on  the  surface  of 
which  were  left  the  footprints  of  several  human  figures.  A  ship  laden  with 
passengers  appeared  to  be  steering  for  the  island.  This  curious  piece  was 
probably  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  frigidarium  or  swimming  pond. 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   213 

organ,  destined  in  his  mind  to  create  more  stir  than  the 
"  belle  Franceschine,"  who  were  to  be  seen  in  the  Low 
Countries  striking  the  hour-bells.  Fortunately,  these 
plans  of  doubtful  taste  were  not  carried  into  execution, 
Torquato  Conti  having  once  more  joined  the  imperial 
army,  and  so  the  Villa  Catena  was  left  to  depend  for  its 
beauty  on  two  of  Nature's  greatest  gifts,  abundance  of 
water  and  wealth  of  vegetation. 

Violante  Farnese,  in  the  mean  time,  devoted  herself 
to  the  building  of  a  church  on  the  outskirts  of  the  villa, 
under  the  name  of  the  Madonna  della  Pieta.  The  altar- 
piece,  a  marble  group  of  the  Virgin  and  the  Redeemer, 
is  the  work  of  Adriano  Schirati,  a  successful  imitator  of 
Michelangelo. 

Lotario  II,  the  confidential  messenger  of  Pope  Clem- 
ent VIII  to  the  Emperor  Rudolf  II,  and  other  courts 
of  Germany  and  Italy,  for  the  conclusion  of  an  alli- 
ance against  the  Turks,  has  also  left  a  souvenir  of  his 
love  for  Poli,  as  described  in  the  following  inscrip- 
tion set  up  in  the  chapel  of  the  ducal  palace:  "In  the 
year  of  our  Lord  1618.  Behold  on  the  left  of  this  altar 
the  mosaic  image  of  Pope  Innocent  III,  in  the  act  of 
listening  to  the  dove  which  alighted  on  his  shoulder 
on  the  day  of  his  coronation,  once  set  up  in  the  tribune 
of  St.  Peter's.  The  other,  on  the  right,  is  the  portrait  of 
Pope  Gregory  IX,  once  set  up  in  the  fa9ade  of  the  same 
church.  They  were  given  to  Lotario  Conti  as  family 
relics,  the  first  by  Clement  VIII  in  the  year  1596,  the 
other  by  Paul  V  in  1605." 

The  last  event  to  be  chronicled  in  connection  with  the 
Villa  Catena  is  the  visit  paid  to  it  in  the  spring  of  1723 
by  the  last  pope  of  the  Conti  family.  Innocent  XIII.  A 
papal  progress  through  the  Campagna  in  those  days  was 
a  widely  different  affair  from  the  matter-of-fact  occur- 


214    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

rences  of  our  age.  Hundreds  of  thousands  were  spent 
to  make  the  display  of  loyalty  fit  the  occasion;  books 
were  written  and  prints  issued  which  help  us  to  recon- 
struct the  wonderful  scenes.  From  this  point  of  view  the 
journey  of  Innocent  XIII  to  Poll  and  that  of  Innocent 


i^ 

IL 

i 

1 

T   f  4 

ff 

f 

r 

T  4 

^v« 

i 

'^'-'^T^^K^^K/j^tt/jm 

M 

^H 

■^ 

^^^^^^^^^^^gg^^^^^^^B 

Avenue  of  cypresses,  Villa  Catena 


XII  to  Porto  d'  Anzio  in  1697  have  become  quite  his- 
torical. The  first  is  described  in  a  work  published  by 
Chracas  in  Rome  in  1723;  the  second  is  illustrated  in  a 
copper-plate  engraved  by  Alessandro  Specchi  from  the 
designs  of  the  architect  Tommaso  Mattei,  who  had  been 
instructed  by  the  Borghese  family  to  prepare  suitable 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   215 

lodgings  for  the  Pope  and  his  escort  and  retinue,  while 
breaking  their  journey  for  the  night,  in  the  Borghese 
farmhouse  of  Carroceto.  A  small  river  was  diverted 
from  its  course  for  the  watering  of  horses  and  beasts  of 
burden ;  caves  were  dug  in  the  rock  for  the  storage  of 
wine,  ice,  and  meat;  stables  were  built  to  accommodate 
430  horses,  also  slaughter-houses  for  oxen,  calves,  and 
pigs,  barracks  for  the  German  Guards,  a  church  for  the 
celebration  of  the  mass,  coach-houses  for  fifty  travelling 
carriages,  while  all  the  heirlooms  and  art  treasures  of 
Borghese  had  been  ransacked  to  beautify  the  apartments 
of  the  pontifical  guest  and  his  attending  cardinals. 

Innocent  XIII  left  Rome  by  the  Porta  Maggiore  on. 
the  morning  of  April  26,  and,  having  halted  at  the  forti- 
fied farm  of  Lunghezza  for  the  midday  meal,  a  guest  of 
the  Strozzi,  reached  the  boundaries  of  Poli  at  sunset. 
Here  his  brother  Lotario,  at  the  head  of  a  company  of 
cavaliers  dressed  in  purple  and  gold,  offered  him  the 
keys  of  the  town,  saying  that  from  immemorial  times 
the  Conti  had  kept  them  faithfully  for  the  Holy  See. 
To  this  loyal  speech  the  Pope  answered,  expressing  the 
hope  that  he  would  be  able  to  keep  them  for  many  years 
to  come.  Then  guns  and  mortars  were  fired,  bells  rung, 
and  shouts  of  welcome  rose  from  the  peasantry,  who  had 
collected  at  the  Villa  Catena  from  every  part  of  the  ter- 
ritory. As  Innocent  XIII  entered  the  gates  of  the  villa, 
the  happy  retreat  of  his  early  days,  his  sedan  chair  was 
surrounded  by  eighteen  cardinals,  the  ambassadors  of 
Spain,  France,  Malta,  and  Bologna,  three  representa- 
tives of  the  Roman  noblesse,  —  Carlo  Albani,  Lorenzo 
Giustiniani,  and  Sforza  Cesarini,  —  a  retinue  of  dig- 
nitaries of  the  Apostolic  household,  and  a  company  of 
Swiss  Guards.  We  may  judge  of  the  cost  and  cares  of 
such  a  reception  from  the  facts  that  pope,  cardinals. 


216    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

ambassadors,  noblemen,  prelates,  and  officers  were 
housed  in  palatial  residences  built  for  the  occasion; 
that  the  Swiss  Guards  and  a  company  of  ducal  men-at- 
arms  were  quartered  in  wooden  barracks;  that  stables 
were  erected  for  two  hundred  horses,  mess-rooms  for 


The  approach  to  the  Villa  Catena 

the  train  of  servants,  and  shops  where  the  peasantry 
could  find  refreshments.  And  if  we  consider,  further- 
more, that  the  visit  of  the  Pope  lasted  twelve  days,  that 
the  park  was  lighted  every  night  with  myriads  of  Vene- 
tian lanterns,  that  orchestras  and  bands  were  kept  play- 
ing from  sunrise  to  sunset,  we  marvel  at  the  ability  of 
the  host  to  stand  the  strain,  social  as  well  as  financial, 
and  we  feel  that  the  name  of  the  duke's  agent,  Giuseppe 
Stefanoni,  who  planned  and  carried  out  every  detail  of 
the  reception,  ought  to  have  been  recorded  in  the  inscrip- 
tion which  commemorates  the  event  to  the  present  day/ 

*  The  inscription,  in  a  frame  of  gilt  bronze,  was  set  up  again  in  the 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   217 

Another  point  of  interest  in  this  charming  district  is 
the  storm-beaten,  weather-worn,  wind-swept  ruin  of  a 
church  on  the  summit  of  the  Colle  degli  Astinelli,  or 
Colle  Sant'  Angelo,  in  which  the  last  stand  of  the  hereti- 
cal Fraticelli  against  the  church  was  made  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Conti.  The  ruins  can  be  easily  reached 
by  carriage  from  Tivoli  to  San  Gregorio  and  Casape; 
thence  on  foot  by  a  mountain  path,  which  leads  past  a 
polygonal  platform  and  a  water-reservoir  of  a  later  age 
to  a  plateau  crowned  by  the  remains  of  a  mediaeval  for- 
tified village  and  of  the  church  of  the  Fraticelli,  now 
turned  into  a  meteorological  observatory. 

The  origin  of  the  sect  variously  called  Fraticelli, 
Beghini,  Bisocchi,  Frati  della  vita  povera,  and  Frati 
deir  Opinione  is  altogether  obscure.  It  first  appeared 
in  Apulia  about  1294,  when  a  number  of  zealots, 
influenced  by  the  ideas  of  poverty  of  the  Franciscans, 
formed  themselves  into  a  brotherhood  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Pietro  da  Macerata  and  Pietro  da  Fossom- 
brone  and  adopted  extravagant  ascetic  habits,  which 
soon  degenerated  into  license  and  opposition  to  the 
Papacy.  They  went  so  far  in  these  directions  as  to  have 
community  of  wives  and  a  pope  of  their  own.  To 
escape  punishment  at  the  hands  of  Boniface  VIII  the 
Fraticelli  migrated  to  Sicily  with  their  chief,  Pedro  Gio- 
vanni Oliva  da  Sirignano.  Clement  V  in  the  council  of 
Vienna,  held  in  1311,  anathematized  the  memory  of 
Oliva,  whose  bones  were  burned  at  the  stake  together 
with  the  ex-votos  with  which  his  grave  had  been  cov- 
ered. Even  so  severe  an  act  of  repression  did  not  mark 
the  end  of  the  heresy. 

front  of  the  casino  in  1840  by  Marino  Torlonia,  the  father  of  the  present 
owner.  It  says,  ' '  In  memory  of  the  welcome  and  happy  visit  of  Innocent 
XIII,  Lotario  Conti,  April  26,  1723." 


218    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

Another  branch,  led  by  Hermann  of  Pangilupo  and 
Wilhelmina  of  Bohemia,  revived  the  customs  of  the  old 
Gnostics,  under  the  protection  of  Louis  the  Bavarian, 
and  it  was  by  their  aid  that  the  Franciscan  brother, 
Pietro  da  Corbara,  was  elected  antipope  in  1320. 

The  branch  which  flourished  in  the  duchy  of  Poli, 
with  their  headquarters  on  Monte  Sant'  Angelo,  origi- 
nated in  1421  and  was  known  by  the  name  of  Fraticelli 
deir  Opinione.  They  were  given  shelter  and  protection 
by  Duke  Stefano  Conti,  and  they  succumbed  with  him 
in  the  trial  instituted  by  Pope  Paul  II  in  1466.  Con- 
sidering their  crimes  against  morality  and  against  the 
church,  they  were  leniently  dealt  with.  Some  were  ban- 
ished for  a  period  of  seven  years,  some  sent  to  jail; 
Stefano  himself  was  imprisoned  for  life  in  the  castle 
of  Sant'  Angelo,  after  having  bequeathed  the  duchy  of 
Poli  and  Guadagnolo  to  his  sons. 

Rome  is  full  of  memorials  of  this  glorious  family, 
from  the  Torre  de'  Conti  erected  by  Nicholas  I  in  858 
and  rebuilt  in  1216  by  Innocent  III  to  the  modern 
Piazza  Poli,  so  named  because  the  ducal  palace  of  the 
lords  of  Poli  and  Guadagnolo  stood  on  that  square; 
the  same  palace  that  now  forms  the  background  and  the 
frame  to  the  Fountain  of  Trevi. 

The  Torre  de'  Conti,  built  on  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  temple  in  the  so-called  baronial  style  of  archi- 
tecture of  the  thirteenth  century,  with  brick  facing  and 
thin  high  buttresses,  has  been  proclaimed  by  Petrarch 
"turris  toto  orbe  unica"  (unique  in  all  the  world).  It 
formed  part  of  a  castellated  inclosure,  the  keep  of 
which  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Torre  delle  Milizie, 
erected  by  another  Conti  pope,  Gregory  IX,  on  the 
nearest  height  of  the  Quirinal.   In  the  Torre  de'  Conti  we 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   219 

find  one  of  the  few  existing  records  of  the  earthquake  of 
1349,  the  worst  ever  experienced  in  Rome.  The  first 
warnings  of  the  impending  commotion  of  the  earth  were 
felt  on  September  7;  then  came  the  fatal  shock,  fol- 
lowed at  intervals  by  lighter  ones  for  days  and  weeks. 
Matteo  Villani  mentions  only  the  belfry  and  the  narthex 
of  St.  Paul's  outside  the  Walls  as  having  been  over- 
thrown on  the  first  day;  but  Petrarch  speaks  of  the  col- 
lapse of  many  ancient  edifices,  —  *'so  much  admired  by 
strangers,  so  much  despised  by  the  Romans,"  —  many 
churches,  many  baronial  towers,  such  as  the  one  of  the 
Conti,  and  of  the  partial  ruin  of  the  basilicas  of  St.  Peter, 
St.  John  the  Lateran,  and  St.  Paul. 

We  can  point  out  four,  at  least,  of  the  *' many  edifices" 
alluded  to  by  Laura's  lover :  the  spiral  column  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  the  basilica  of  Constantine,  certain  monuments 
on  the  Sacra  Via,  and  the  Flavian  amphitheatre. 

Before  Domenico  Fontana,  the  confidential  architect 
of  Sixtus  V,  undertook  in  1589  the  restoration  of  the 
*'columna  centenaria  divi  Marci,"  ^  its  state  was  preca- 
rious in  consequence  of  a  twist  it  had  received  at  about 
two  thirds  of  its  height,  the  effects  of  which  appear  in  all 
the  views  of  the  pillar  taken  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
In  fact,  there  were  two  centres  of  disintegration,  —  a 
smaller  one  which  extended  from  the  sixth  to  the 
eighth  coil  of  the  spiral  band  of  bas-reliefs,  and  another 
reaching  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  sixteenth.  These 
lacerations  cannot  have  been  produced  by  a  crushing 
pressure  from  above,  nor  by  strokes  of  lightning,  nor  — 
as  some  have  suggested  —  by  mediaeval  displays  of  fire- 

*  So  named  because  exactly  one  hundred  feet  high  (without  the  ped- 
estal). The  cracks  produced  by  the  earthquake  appear  most  evident  in 
Duperac's  thirty-fourth  plate,  also  in  Lafreri's  beautiful  panoramic  view 
of  Rome,  p.  55,  line  200,  of  Ehrle's  catalogue. 


220    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

works  for  which  the  column  was  used  as  a  frame,  nor  by 
a  spirit  of  wanton  destruction.  Such  cracks  and  such 
displacement  of  the  great  marble  blocks  can  be  accounted 
for  only  in  one  way,  —  by  attributing  them  to  a  vortex- 
like movement  of  the  earth.  Fontana  has  described  in  a 
note-book,  now  preserved  in  the  state  Archives,  the  diffi- 
culties he  had  to  overcome  in  setting  the  pillar  straight 
by  drawing  back  into  their  proper  sockets  the  blocks 
that  bulged  forward,  and  by  filling  up  the  gaps  with 
new  blocks,  which  had  to  fit  the  sinuous  band  of  bas- 
reliefs  outside  and  the  curve  of  the  stairs  inside.    He 


The  ruined  church  of  the  Fraticelli  on  the  Monte  Sant'  Angelo  above  Poli 


was  compelled  to  bind  the  whole  column  with  steel 
bands,  wound  with  hemp  and  wool,  so  as  not  to  injure 
its  surface,  and  to  erect  a  strong  scaffold  to  lift  the 
blocks  into  place.  And  for  this  work  he  received  a  com- 
pensation of  only  three  hundred  and  twenty-three  scudi 
and  a  half! 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   221 

The  basilica  of  Constantine  shows  to  the  present  day 
the  effects  of  the  earthquake.  This  great  building,  was 
still  intact  in  the  thirteenth  century,  as  shown  by  certain 
Christian  frescoes  of  that  period  discovered  by  Nibby 
in  1828  in  the  apse  of  the  east  transept.  In  the  following 
century  the  collapse  of  the  vaulted  ceilings  of  the  nave 
and  west  aisle  brought  the  basilica  to  its  present  ruinous 
state.  Here,  again,  we  can  prove  that  the  collapse  was 
caused  by  an  earthquake  shock.  A  block  of  masonry, 
weighing  more  than  one  hundred  tons,  fell  from  the 
north  end  of  the  east  aisle  on  the  pavement  of  the  Forum 
Pacis,  just  at  the  feet  of  the  marble  plan  of  Rome,  and 
fell  entirely  out  of  the  perpendicular,  as  if  an  impact 
coming  from  the  southeast  had  pushed  it  sideways. 
The  fallen  block  is  pierced  by  a  spiral  staircase,  another 
section  of  which  is  still  in  situ  at  the  top  of  the  building. 
The  date  of  the  catastrophe  — =  the  fourteenth  century  — 
is  confirmed  by  another  consideration.  When  the  block 
fell,  the  pavement  of  the  Forum  Pacis  was  already  cov- 
ered by  a  layer  of  rubbish  ten  feet  thick.  And  here,  also, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Torre,  we  come  upon  the  Conti. 
The  area  of  the  Forum  is  described  as  the  "garden  of 
Torquato  Conti"  in  a  document  of  1558.  Here,  in  the 
time  of  Pius  IV,  the  fragments  of  the  plan  of  the  city 
engraved  on  marble  under  Severus  and  Caracalla  were 
discovered  by  the  architect  Giovanni  Antonio  Dosio. 
Count  Torquato  made  a  present  of  them  to  Cardinal 
Alessandro  Farnese.^ 

The  Coliseum,  however,  is  the  building,  par  excellence, 

^  The  Forum  of  Peace  has  another  connection  with  the  subject  I  am 
discussing  at  present.  If  we  may  beheve  the  evidence  of  the  chroniclers 
of  the  sixth  century,  fearful  "boati"  (roarings  of  the  earth)  were  heard  in 
the  Forum  for  seven  days  in  the  year  408,  under  the  consulship  of  Bassus 
and  Philippus. 


222    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

on  the  face  of  which  these  disastrous  contingencies  have 
been  registered  one  by  one,  from  the  time  of  the  Flavians 
to  that  of  Pope  Clement  XI.  Few  students  have  ever 
looked  at  the  greatest  of  Roman  amphitheatres  from 
this  point  of  view.  I  was  led  myself  to  investigate  the 
subject  from  the  perusal  of  the  *' Excerpts  from  the 
Chronicle  of  Horosius,"  edited  by  De  Rossi  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  "Bullettino  Cristiano,"  pp.  17-23. 

There  lived  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Gallen,  in  the 
year  849,  an  old  recluse,  who,  having  been  extremely 
terrified  by  a  ^'terrse  motus  maximus"  of  eleven  days' 
duration,  began  to  search  in  ancient  chronicles  for 
records  of  past  disasters,  and  found  in  the  one  by  Horo- 
sius enough  horrors  to  satisfy  the  most  morbid  curi- 
osity: eclipses  of  the  sun,  comets,  apparitions,  massa- 
cres, famine,  floods,  eruptions,  fires,  barbarian  inroads, 
and  tremors  of  the  earth,  six  of  which  (a.  d.  408,  429, 
443,  492,  501,  and  502)  proved  the  most  disastrous  of 
all.  Now  each  of  these  tremors,  having  damaged  the 
Coliseum,  gave  occasion  for  repairs,  which  are  duly 
recorded  by  inscriptions,  more  or  less  modelled  on  the 
following  formula:  "Under  the  rule  of  our  Lords  Theo- 
dosius  II  and  Valentinian  III,  I,  Rufus  Caecina  Lam- 
padius,  prefect  of  the  City,  have  rebuilt  the  substructures 
of  the  arena,  the  podium,  and  the  seats  of  the  specta- 
tors." ^  This  refers  probably  to  the  catastrophe  of  the 
year  429.  The  one  in  443  must  have  proved  even  more 
destructive,  considering  that  the  two  inscriptions  men- 
tioning the  repairs  were  each  two  hundred  and  forty 
feet  long.  The  last  document  of  the  Roman  period 
dates  from  the  time  of  good  King  Theodoric,  and  from 
the  year  508,  when  the  prefect  Basilius  set  up  several 
marble    pedestals,    each    inscribed    with    the    legend, 

*  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.,  vol.  vi,  n.  1763. 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   223 

"Decius  Marius  Venantius  Basilius,  prefect,  consul, 
etc.,  has  reconstructed  at  his  own  cost  the  arena  and  the 
podium  wrecked  abominandi  terrae  motvs  rvina." 
Notwithstanding  these  and  other  minor  calamities,  the 
effects  of  which  are  perhaps  exaggerated  in  these  flatter- 
ing inscriptions,  the  shell  of  the  amphitheatre  was  prac- 
tically intact  in  the  eighth  century,  when  Bede  wrote  his 
proverb,  '*Quamdiu  stabit  Coliseus  stabit  et  Roma; 
quando  cadet  Coliseus  cadet  et  Roma."  When  and  how 
was  it  reduced  to  its  present  state  ?  By  the  earthquake 
of  1349,  of  which  Petrarch  was  a  witness,  as  shown  by 
the  fact  that  soon  after  we  find  the  legates  of  Pope 
Urban  V,  the  Frangipane,  and  the  S.  P.  Q.  R.  quar- 
relling over  the  spoils  of  the  fallen  giant:  "de  faciendo 
tiburtina''  (to  exploit  the  quarry  of  the  Coliseum). 
It  has  taken  354  years  and  eleven  generations  of  stone- 
cutters and  lime-burners  to  exhaust  it.  A  document  of 
1452  published  by  Eugene  Miintz  ^  certifies  how  one 
contractor  alone  could  carry  off  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  cartloads  of  stone  in  the  space  of 
nine  months.  And  when,  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  quarry  began  to  show  signs  of  exhaustion, 
another  shock  filled  it  up  again  with  fresh  material. 
This  calamity  took  place  on  the  third  day  of  February 
of  the  year  1703,  and  it  is  the  last  that  historians  have 
to  mention  in  connection  with  Rome. 

Francesco  Valesio,  a  contemporary  diarist,  has  left 
the  following  interesting  memoranda  of  the  event. 
"Friday,  February  3,  1703,  feast  of  the  Purification  — 
Pontifical  ceremony  in  the  Sixtine  chapel  —  At  11.30 
A.  M.,  while  His  Holiness  Clement  XI  was  pronouncing 
the  verse  of  the  Litanies  *ut  nullis  nos  permittas  per- 
turbationibus  concuti '  [Save  us  from  all  perturbations], 

^  In  Revue  Arch.,  September,  1876. 


224    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

three  shocks  were  felt,  so  violent  that  the  whole  audience 
ran  out  of  the  chapel,  leaving  the  Pope  alone  on  the 
episcopal  chair,  to  pray  for  the  cessation  of  the  peril. 
I,  Francesco  Valesio,  happened  to  be  crossing  at  that 
hour  the  Piazza  Navona,  and  beheld  the  Fontana  de' 
Calderaj  oscillate  from  east  to  west  so  that  the  water  ran 
over  the  edge  of  the  basin.  I  saw  also  the  belfry  of  the 
church  of  Sant'  Agostino  and  Bernini's  obelisk  on  the 
Fontana  de'  Quattro  Fiumi  follow  the  undulatory  heav- 
ing of  the  earth." 

In  consideration  of  the  fact  that  the  disaster  had  not 
been  attended  by  a  loss  of  human  life,  Clement  XI  or- 
dered a  thanksgiving  service  to  be  held  in  the  church  of 
S.  Maria  in  Trastevere,  to  be  followed  by  a  procession 
of  penance  to  St.  Peter's ;  but  the  venerable  Pope's  bad 
luck  was  made  conspicuous  once  more,  for  the  flood- 
gates of  heaven  opened  upon  the  pageant  as  soon  as  it 
left  the  shelter  of  the  church,  and  the  outpouring  did 
not  cease  until  the  procession  reached  the  gates  of  the 
Vatican. 

The  blocks  of  stone  that  fell  from  the  Coliseum  were 
granted  by  Clement  XI  to  the  contractor  for  the  building 
of  the  Porto  di  Ripetta,  that  beautiful  landing  and  moor- 
ing station  on  the  upper  reach  of  the  river  which  the 
present  generation  has  seen  demolished  to  make  room 
for  the  most  unsesthetic  of  bridges  in  modern  Rome, 
the  Ponte  Cavour. 

The  contiguity  of  the  land  of  Gregory  the  Great  to  the 
city  of  Prseneste,  and  the  historical  connection  which 
bound  land  and  city  together,  in  classic  times  as  well  as 
in  the  middle  ages,  lead  us  to  study  another  character- 
istic of  the  Campagna  —  that  of  its  many  oracles  and 
places  of  pilgrimage.    Starting  from  the  oracle  of  Clitum- 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   225 


Polygonal  walls  built  after  the  Pelasgic  occupation  of  Praeneste 

ntis  on  the  borderland  of  Umbria,  a  credulous  man, 
anxious  to  learn  his  fate,  could  appeal  —  provided  his 
purse  was  well  filled  —  to  those  of  Feronia  at  Civitucula, 
Juno  Sospita  at  Eretum,  Juno  Regina  at  Veii,  Hercules 
Victor  at  Tibur,  Fortuna  Primigenia  at  Praeneste,  For- 
tuna  Equestris  at  Antium,  Mater  Matuta  at  Satricum, 
Juno  Sospita  at  Lanuvium,  Artemis  Taurica  at  Nemi, 
Jupiter  Latiaris  on  the  Monte  Cavo,  Jupiter  Anxur  at 
Terracina,  Vaticanus  on  the  Monte  Mario,  and  Aphro- 
dite at  Ardea,  besides  many  minor  places,  the  sites  of 
which  are  marked  to  the  present  day  by  heaps  and 
mounds  of  votive  terra-cottas.  Competition  must  have 
been  keen  among  all  these  impostors,  and  —  judging 
from  the  meanness  of  the  ex-votos  —  must  have  brought 
about  a  considerable  reduction  of  income,  unless  the 
leaders  joined  in  a  syndicate,  to  retain  their  hold  on  the 
market. 

This  abundance  of  oracles  in  the  Campagna,  which 


226    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

makes  it  unique  in  comparison  with  other  localities, 
confirms  the  truth  of  the  tradition  concerning  the  Pelas- 
gic  origin  of  the  Latin  race.  In  the  vast  and  complicated 
system  of  practical  religion  which  prevailed  in  Greece 
and  Italy,  oracles  took  the  place  of  honor.  An  oracle 
means  a  special  locality  supposed  to  have  been  chosen 
by  a  supernatural  power,  a  god,  a  hero,  or  the  spirit  of 
the  dead,  from  which  they  were  ready  to  answer  in  more 
or  less  intelligible  form  the  questions  asked  by  their  wor- 
shippers. The  Pelasgians,  whose  migrations  from  their 
original  abode  in  northern  Greece  to  southern  and  cen- 
tral Italy  can  be  traced  from  stage  to  stage  by  means  of 
their  polygonal  style  of  masonry,  were  a  race  imbued 
with  feelings  of  wonder  and  fear  by  the  great  features 
of  nature  —  mountains,  canons,  rivers,  lakes,  forests, 
waterfalls,  thermal  springs,  volcanoes  —  which  they  en- 
countered in  their  progress.  They  individualized  the 
powers  inherent  in  these,  deprecated  their  anger,  and 
believed  that  their  will  was  ascertainable  through  subtle 
and  undefined  manifestations,  especially  through  motion 
and  sound.  Places  of  impressive  or  fearsome  aspect 
would  therefore  strike  the  Pelasgians  as  proper  centres 
of  religious  mystery.  The  two  most  ancient  and  power- 
ful among  the  Greek  oracles,  Dodona  and  Delphi,  were 
unquestionably  due  to  the  operation  of  these  feelings. 

The  region  about  Dodona,  for  instance,  all  crags  and 
forests,  is  said  to  be  the  most  stormy  in  Europe.  The 
god  was  believed  to  give  his  answers  through  the  rustling 
of  the  leaves  of  an  oak  which  towered  above  all  others 
in  that  part  of  the  forest.  The  district  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  a  tribe  named  Selli,  whom  Homer  calls  "Selli 
with  unwashed  feet,  whose  couch  is  on  the  bare  ground," 
words  which  have  been  interpreted  as  meaning  that  those 
savage  tribesmen  used  to  lie  prone  on  the  ground  while 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   227 

listening  to  the  play  of  the  wind  through  the  branches  of 
the  tree  in  the  trunk  of  which  Zeus  was  alleged  to  have 
chosen  his  abode. 

Under  the  influence  of  these  feelings  the  Pelasgians 
chose  the  site  of  Prseneste  for  one  of  their  settlements, 
attracted  not  so  much  by  its  commanding  position  on 
the  main  line  of  communication  between  the  Tiber  and 
the  Liris,  between  Latium  and  Campania,  as  by  certain 
features  of  nature  which  seemed  to  portend  the  presence 
of  a  god  there.  It  even  seems  probable  that  the  place 
was  already  occupied  by  a  terraced  village  of  the  Siculi, 
whom  I  have  described  as  the  first  inhabitants  of  Latium, 
before  any  foreign  colonists  landed  on  their  coast  or 
crossed  their  boundary  mountains.  Plautus  names  it 
among  the  cities  of  the  barbarians,  and  Servius  mentions 
a  Herilus,  a  prince  or  leader  of  the  Siculi,  who  defended 
Prseneste  against  the  Aborigines  or  Latins.  These 
events  must  have  happened  in  the  sixteenth  century 
before  the  Christian  era,  and  the  oracle  must  have  be- 
come popular  long  before  the  foundation  of  Rome. 
Cicero  ^  gives  the  following  traditional  account  of  its 
origin :  — 

**Numerius  Suffucius,  a  citizen  of  birth  and  reputa- 
tion, was  warned  by  frequent  dreams  to  blast  away  a 
piece  of  rock  which  was  to  be  found  at  a  spot  indicated 
to  him.  These  dreams  he  related  to  many  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  who  laughed  at  him  for  his  superstition.  .  .  . 
The  dreams,  however,  continued,  and  to  commands 
there  succeeded  menaces.  Numerius,  much  alarmed, 
at  last  complied,  and,  having  broken  the  stone,  found 
a  number  of  wooden  labels  inscribed  with  mysterious 
lettering.  The  place  where  the  find  was  made,  now  in- 
closed in  the  sanctuary,  is  held  in  great  veneration,  and 

*  De  Divinatione,  ii,  41. 


228    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

is  marked  by  a  statue  of  Fortune  nursing  the  infants 
Jupiter  and  Juno  in  her  arms.  An  olive  tree,  which 
grew  near  the  cave,  having  given  forth  honey,  it  was  cut 
away  by  order  of  the  soothsayers,  and  from  its  wood  a 
box  was  made,  in  which  the  fortune-telling  lots  have 
been  kept  ever  since."  This  tradition  must  have  been 
formed  and  spread  among  the  worshippers  to  explain 
certain  particulars  of  the  origin  and  aspect  of  the  place. 
The  cave,  the  recess  in  which  the  olive  box  was  kept 
and  the  lots  were  drawn,  and  the  niche  where  the 
statue  of  the  goddess  was  venerated  as  Primigenia  (that 
is,  as  generatrix  or  nourisher  of  the  gods),  are  still  in  a 
marvellous  state  of  preservation.  From  a  study  of  the 
part  they  played  in  the  working  of  the  establishment 
and  in  the  deception  of  response-seekers,  we  come  to 
this  conclusion:  that  the  oracle  of  Prseneste  was  one  of 
the  simplest,  and  as  far  removed  from  trickery  and 
subterfuge  as  the  nature  and  essence  of  such  places 
would  permit. 

This  exception  to  the  rule  appears  more  remarkable 
if  we  consider  the  unscrupulous  means  adopted  in  other 
sanctuaries  to  take  advantage  of  the  credulity  of  appli- 
cants. The  last  of  Italian  classic  writers,  Antonio  Bre- 
sciani  (whom  I  knew  in  my  youth),  while  shooting  in  the 
woods  of  Mizzole,  near  the  Val  Pantena,  seven  miles 
north  of  Verona,  found  himself  approaching  a  rustic 
sanctuary,  known  to  the  woodsmen  under  the  name  of 
Santa  Maria  delle  Stelle,  perched  on  a  spur  of  rock,  the 
base  of  which  plunged  into  a  foaming  torrent.  While 
Bresciani  was  wondering  at  the  wild  and  dismal  aspect 
of  the  place,  an  old  priest,  in  charge  of  the  shrine, 
invited  him  to  explore  the  mysteries  of  the  oracular 
cave  which  opened  under  it,  and  which  dated  as  far 
back  as  the  coming  of  the  CEneti  or  Euganei  to  the 


V— ...,.„^, 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  MODERN  PALESTRIN. 


)VERING  SITE  OF  TEMPLE  OF  FORTUNE 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   229 

southern  slopes  of  the  Veronese  Alps,  —  men  of  Pelasgic 
descent,  who,  having  discovered  this  awe-inspiring  glen, 
consecrated  it  to  their  gods  under  the  name  of  Pan- 
theonia,  from  which  the  modern  Val  Pantena  is  said  to 
be  derived. 

The  oracular  cave,  which  no  man  of  learning  had  en- 
tered since  the  days  of  Scipione  Maffei,  its  first  explorer, 
is  connected  with  the  crypt  of  Santa  Maria  delle  S telle 
by  means  of  a  passage  so  low  that  the  visitor  is  com- 
pelled to  advance  on  his  hands  and  knees.  He  hears 
at  first  a  distant  wail,  as  if  a  victim  were  moaning  at  the 
approach  of  its  fate,  and  at  the  next  bend  of  the  tunnel 
the  wail  changes  into  thunder,  as  if  a  whole  hecatomb 
were  being  slain  in  the  cave  beyond.  All  noise  stops  at 
the  entrance  to  this  cave,  a  round,  rock-hewn  hall  with 
a  niche  for  the  statue  of  the  god,  facing  the  orifice  of  the 
channel.  Bresciani  could  not  find  out  the  secrets  of  the 
place  in  all  particulars,  as  he  was  not  provided  with 
ladders  and  torches;  but  having  noticed  a  flue  running 
upwards  from  the  dome,  and  having  tested  the  great 
acoustic  power  of  the  cave,  he  believes  that  the  appli- 
cants were  deceived  in  this  way:  In  the  first  place,  the 
wailing,  moaning,  and  roaring,  which  are  heard  to 
the  present  day,  are  simply  the  effect  of  a  waterfall,  the 
sound  of  which  strikes  the  sides  of  the  passage,  gently 
at  first  and  then  with  increased  power.  Deafened  by 
the  sound,  and  chilled  in  mind  and  body,  the  applicant 
was  made  to  kneel  before  the  god  and  state  his  question. 
iVn  accomplice  concealed  in  a  recess  above  the  dome 
would  slowly  articulate  ambiguous  words  of  answer, 
which  came  down  the  flue  in  strange  and  mysterious 
tones.  Impostures  of  the  same  nature  were  practised  in 
other  oracular  sanctuaries,  as  in  that  of  Hercules  the 
great  custodian,  in  Rome,  w^here  a  child  could  enter  the 


230    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

hollow  statue  of  the  god  by  an  opening  in  the  back  of 
the  head,  and  give  certain  prearranged  answers  in  un- 
canny and  weird  sounds,  more  like  bellowing  than 
speaking.  In  the  sanctuary  of  Jupiter  at  Terracina,  the 
responses  were  obtained  in  this  way :  The  applicant  was 
made  to  approach  a  pinnacle  of  live  rock  which  rose  in 
front  of  the  temple  and  was  pierced  by  a  shaft  or  flue 
communicating  with  an  underground  chamber;  and  to 
place  a  handful  of  straw  or  dry  leaves  in  the  opening  of 
the  flue.  The  leaves  were  either  sucked  down  and  made 
to  disappear,  or  blown  up  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
wind;  these  opposite  effects  could  easily  be  obtained  by 
generating  opposite  currents  in  the  flue,  by  lighting  a 
fire  in  the  crypt,  or  by  any  such  simple  device,  easy  to 
contrive  in  a  spur  of  rock  exposed  to  the  full  force  of  the 
wind. 

Commenting  on  the  passage  in  the  book  of  Daniel 
which  speaks  of  the  imposture  of  the  priests  of  Baal, 
who  could  reenter  the  temple  by  a  secret  passage  and 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  victims,  Fontenelle  remarks:  '*If 
these  priests  could  eat  undiscovered  the  share  of  the  god, 
they  could  with  equal  facility  speak  in  his  place."  ^ 
When  the  temple  of  ^Esculapius  at  Mgis  was  suppressed 
by  order  of  Constantine,  the  hollow  of  the  statue  was 
found  to  contain  human  bones.  The  expressions  used 
by  Cicero  and  Macrobius  in  regard  to  the  figures  of  the 
two  Fortunes  at  Antium  and  Praeneste  lead  us  to  con- 
jecture that  both  statues  must  have  been  articulated,  or 
at  least  capable  of  nodding  or  moving  the  eyes.  When 
the  image  of  Jupiter  Arrimon  was  carried  in  procession 
in  a  gondola  of  gold,  the  itinerary  was  pointed  out  by 
the  god  himself  nodding  his  head  to  the  right  or  the  left. 

*  See  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Fontenelle's  Histoire  des  oracles,  entitled 
"  Fourberies  des  oracles  manifestement  decouvertes." 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   231 

The  same  account  is  given  of  the  statue  of  Helios  at 
Baalbek.  Lucian  in  his  treatise  of  the  goddess  Syria  as- 
serts that  he  once  saw  the  figure  of  Apollo  leave  the 
sacred  couch  on  which  it  was  carried  in  procession  and 
fly  in  the  air. 

We  must  not  condemn  too  severely  the  credulity  of 
the  Pelasgic  and  Latin  races,  when  we  remember  how 
fond  the  chosen  people  themselves  were  of  consulting 
the  oracle  of  Baal  at  Ekron.  The  desire  to  foresee 
events  in  life,  and  to  read  the  future,  is  innate  in  man- 
kind. Fifty-six  forms  of  divination,  known  and  prac- 
tised by  the  ancients,  are  registered  in  archaeological 
manuals.  In  the  beginning  appeal  was  made  in  good 
faith  to  experience  and  to  the  practical  judgment  of  the 
elders  of  a  tribe,  whose  replies,  based  on  their  knowledge 
of  men  and  things,  were  generally  found  to  be  true. 
Later,  when  the  fame  of  some  of  these  wise  old  men 
became  known  beyond  the  boundaries  of  their  native 
place,  imposture  crept  in,  and  oracles  became  a  per- 
manent institution,  the  secret  of  their  working  being 
transmitted  from  father  to  son,  from  priest  to  priest. 
Needless  to  say,  the  responses,  whichever  way  they  were 
obtained,  were  subject  to  a  charge,  and  a  high  one,  by 
means  of  which  popular  sanctuaries,  especially  those 
of  Lanuvium,  Nemi,  Tibur,  and  Prseneste,  secured  an 
almost  fabulous  revenue.  When  Octavius  found  him- 
self in  financial  straits  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  '*he 
borrowed  money  from  the  temples,  from  the  Capitoline 
at  Rome,  from  those  of  Antium,  of  Lanuvium,  of  Nemus, 
and  of  Tibur,  in  which  cities  there  are  to-day  the  most 
abundant  stores  of  consecrated  money."  ^  But  we  need 
not  quote  historical  evidence  when  we  have  before  our 
eyes  the  evidence  of  facts. 

^  Appianus,  Civil  Wars,  trans,  by  Professor  Horace  White,  v,  24. 


232    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  RO^IAN  CAMPAGNA 

Palestrina  is  an  episcopal  city  of  seven  thousand 
inhabitants,  built  almost  entirely  within  the  precincts 
of  the  temple.  Every  house,  church,  convent,  or  villa 
rests  on  antique  foundations.  They  rose. in  steps  and 
terraces  up  the  slope  of  the  mountain  to  a  great  height, 
the  difference  of  level  between  the  lower  gate  and  the 
pinnacle  of  the  upper  rotunda  being  five  hundred  feet. 


Front  of  the  lower  terrace  of  the  Sanctuary,  twelve  hundred  feet  long 


The  lower  terrace  had  a  frontage  of  twelve  hundred 
feet,  and  the  whole  establishment  covered  an  area  of 
about  eighty  acres.  Such  figures  of  length,  breadth, 
and  surface  do  not  mean  much  by  themselves ;  but  if  we 
cover  that  space  with  structures  of  stone  and  marble 
exquisitely  cut  and  carved;  with  colonnades  of  the  cost- 
liest breccia,  crowned  with  capitals  of  gilt  metal;  with 
hundreds  of  statues  chiselled  or  cast  by  Greek  artists; 
if  we  consider  that  the  only  mosaic  floor  yet  exhumed 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  FORTUNE.    DETAIL.    INTERIOR 


OF  THE 


OF 

/FORN' 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   235 

at  Palestrina  is  the  finest  in  the  world,  we  may  grasp 
the  idea  of  the  millions  which  must  have  been  lavished 
upon  and  absorbed  by  the  building  and  ornamenting 
of  the  great  sanctuary.  To  be  sure,  comparisons  with 
modern  undertakings  of  the  same  nature  may  be  mis- 
leading, because  the  value  and  the  potentiality  of  money 
were  altogether  different  in  those  days;  yet  I  cannot  help 
recalling  the  fact  that  the  rebuilding  of  St.  Peter's  has 
cost  the  pontifical  treasury  about  eight  million  pounds, 
and  St.  Peter's  does  not  cover,  annexes  included,  two 
thirds  of  the  area  of  the  temple  of  Fortune. 

Now  every  penny  spent  on  that  structure,  from  the 
time  of  Sulla  to  that  of  the  Antonines,  was  drawn  out  of 
the  purses  of  credulous  pilgrims  seeking  to  learn  their 
fate  by  means  of  the  celebrated  sortes  PrcenestincE. 
Judged  by  the  few  which  have  come  down  to  us,  the 
answers  must  have  been  eminently  unsatisfactory.  Livy 
mentions  the  following,  given  to  a  deputation  from  Rome 
at  the  time  of  the  second  Punic  War  (118-211  b.  c): 
Mavorstelum  suum concutit  ("Mars  shakes  his  spear"), 
which  was  interpreted  as  a  warning  of  Hannibal's  ad- 
vance on  Lake  Trasimene,  while  it  referred  more  likely 
to  the  vibration  of  the  hastse  Martis  in  the  seismogra- 
phic  observatory  of  the  Regia,  as  described  in  "New 
Tales,"  p.  78.  A  brass  label  discovered  in  1876  near 
Abano  (near  the  oracle  of  Aponus)  contains  the  words : 
Est  equos  (sic)  perpulcer,  sed  tu  vehi  non  potes:  "The 
horse  is  very  handsome,  but  thou  canst  not  ride  it"; 
which  seems  to  be  lacking  in  common  sense. 

The  thought  that  fabulous  sums  of  money  could  be 
extorted  by  means  of  such  blatant  impostures  does 
not  reflect  credit  on  the  intelligence  and  perspicacity 
of  men ;  and  yet  if  we  are  unwilling  to  rely  on  the  evi- 
dence of  the  great  structures  of  Prseneste,  Tibur,  Lanu- 


236    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

vium,  and  Nemi,  we  have  other  ways  of  reaching  the 
same  conclusion.  One  is  to  note  the  number  and  value 
of  the  ex-votos  which  are  found  to  the  present  day  near 
these  sanctuaries,  in  seams  and  layers  and  hillocks  of 
astonishing  quantities,  each  one  representing  the  offer- 
ing of  one  family  rather  than  of  one  individual.  At 
Veii,  the  periodical  emptying  of  the  halls,  in  which 
ex-votos  were  hung  at  first  on  the  innumerable  brass 
nails  that  studded  the  walls,  has  produced  a  slope  of 
figured  terra-cottas  which  almost  reaches  the  bed  of 
the  Cremera,  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight  feet  below. 
This  deposit  was  first  discovered  in  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander VII  (1655-1667)  by  his  nephew.  Cardinal  Chigi, 
together  with  the  temple  of  the  goddess.  An  eye-witness 
of  these  excavations  describes  the  temple  as  a  beautiful 
structure  with  fluted  columns  of  the  Ionic  order,  and  a 
frieze  carved  in  trophies  and  panoplies.  The  altar, 
"with  figures  of  Etruscan  type,"  was  still  in  situ.  The 
strata  of  ex-votos  were  so  rich  "that  the  whole  of  Rome 
was  flooded  with  terra-cottas  ...  in  such  quantities  as 
to  make  several  hundred  cartloads.  There  were  also 
bronze  figurines  and  sacred  vessels  and  mirror-cases, 
which  were  stolen  or  destroyed.  I  have  known  of  one 
workman  breaking  marvellous  objects  {cose  insigni)  into 
fragments,  to  melt  them  for  knife  handles."  ^  The  mine 
has  been  exploited  for  three  and  a  half  centuries  with- 
out showing  any  trace  of  exhaustion.  In  the  campaign 
of  exploration  which  I  directed  in  1889  on  the  site  of 
Veii,  the  property  at  that  time  of  the  late  Empress 
of  Brazil,  I  was  able  to  make  a  rough  estimate  of  its 
dimensions :  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  fifty 
in  width,  from   three   to   four  in  depth;   nearly  forty- 

*  Memoirs  of  Pietro  Sante  Bartoli,  published  by  Carlo  Fea,  Miscel- 
lanea Antiquaria,  vol.  i. 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   237 

four  thousand  cubic  feet,  left  after  many  centuries  of 
plunder ! 

Human  nature  has  not  changed  with  the  lapse  of 
centuries,  and  the  craving  for  a  revelation  of  the  future 


An  altar  found  within  the  Temple  of  Fortune 

by  more  or  less  superstitious  means  has  not  been  sup- 
pressed by  the  evangelization  of  pagan  lands.  The 
sortes,  having  been  almost  forgotten  towards  the  end  of 
the  empire,  came  again  into  fashion  in  Christian  times. 


238    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

As  the  Greeks  made  use  of  the  Iliad  or  the  Odyssey,  the 
Romans  of  the  iEneid,  so  did  the  Christians  use  the 
Bible  and  the  Psalter,  opening  them  at  random,  and 
taking  the  first  line  on  which  their  eyes  rested  as  an  indi- 
cation of  future  occurrences.  St.  Augustine  refers  more 
than  once  to  this  formula  of  divination.  Even  the  shape 
of  the  tablets  was  borrowed  from  heathenism,  being  cut 
in  hard  wood,  or  else  in  the  form  of  biscuits,  as  described 
in  the  minutes  of  the  council  held  at  Auxerre  in  578. 
They  were  called  sortes  sanctorum,  just  as  the  ancients 
were  wont  to  speak  of  the  sortes  virgiliance  or  the  sortes 
Prcenestince.  Popular  manuals  explained  their  meaning, 
like  the  "Libro  dei  sogni"  (Book  of  Dreams)  of  the 
present  day.  Council  after  council  condemned  the  use 
of  such  books;  but  so  natural  is  the  trend  of  human 
nature  towards  the  divination  of  future  events,  that  the 
acts  of  one  of  these  councils  relate  how  the  assembled 
bishops  drew  an  omen  or  a  forewarning  from  certain 
words  of  the  Liturgic  lesson  of  the  day,  and  decided 
to  mention  the  event  in  the  official  proceedings  of  the 
meeting. 

There  are  two  centres  of  interest  to  be  visited  at 
Palestrina,  —  the  lower,  which  includes  the  forum,  the 
basilica,  the  solarium,  the  serarium,  the  temple  where 
the  responses  were  given,  the  cave  in  which  the  sortes 
were  kept  in  the  box  of  olive  wood,  and  the  secret  pas- 
sage connecting  the  temple  with  the  cave ;  and  the  upper, 
comprising  the  round  shrine  and  the  baronial  palace  of 
the  Barberini,  in  a  hall  of  which  the  famous  mosaic  floor 
is  now  exhibited. 

The  forum  is  represented  by  the  modern  piazza,  the 
basilica  by  the  cathedral  church  of  S.  Agapito.  The 
sun-dial  described  by  Varro  and  illustrated  by  Maruc- 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT 


239 


chi  ^  is  engraved  above  the  entrance  door  of  the  basilica. 
The  serarium  or  treasury,  in  which  the  fees  paid  to  the 
sortilegi  were  stored  away  in  safes  belonging  to  the 
municipality,  was  discovered  in  1872.  It  is  a  vaulted 
crypt  twenty-one  feet  deep,  fourteen  wide,  opening  on 
the  forum,  under  the  vestibule  of  the  temple,  a  veritable 


Foro  primiflvo 


Sun  Dial 

Plan  of  oracle 


strong-room,  doubly  protected  by  its  religious  consecra- 
tion and  by  its  walls  of  massive  masonry.  An  inscrip- 
tion facing  the  door  names  the  sedile  M.  Anicius  and 
M.  Mersieius  as  the  builders  of  this  serarium. 

The  Templum  Fortunse  Primigenise,  used  until  lately 
for  a  wine  cellar  and  lumber  room  for  the  episcopal 
seminary,  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  Italic 
architecture  of  Sulla's  time  to  be  found  in  central  Italy. 

^  Varro,  De  Lingua  Latina,  vi,  4  ;  Marucchi,  "  Di  un  antichissimo 
orologio  solare  recentemente  scoperto  in  Palestrina,"  in  Annali  Istitvto, 
1884,  p.  286. 


240    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Its  apse,  hewn  out  of  the  live  rock,  has  three  recesses  or 
niches,  the  purpose  of  which  has  been  a  subject  of  much 
controversy;  its  great  interest,  however,  lies  in  the  fact 
that  within  its  walls  the  mosaic,  now  in  the  baronial 
palace,  was  discovered  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Prince  Federico  Cesi,  the  founder  of 
the  Accademia  dei  Lincei,  first  described  it  in  1614. 
The  earliest  colored  copy  was  made  soon  after,  at  the 
expense  of  the  Cavaliere  Cassiano  dal  Pozzo,  whose 
invaluable  collection  of  archaeological  drawings  was 
bequeathed  to  the  British  Museum  by  the  late  Sir  Au- 
gustus Franks.  Cardinal  Andrea  Peretti,  Bishop  of 
Palestrina  in  1625-26,  removed  the  floor  to  Rome, 
giving  in  exchange  for  it  to  the  chapter  of  S.  Agapito 
a  few  church  vestments.  In  the  mean  time  the  princi- 
pality of  Palestrina  having  been  sold  by  Francesco 
Colonna,  on  January  16,  1630,  to  Carlo  Barberini, 
brother  of  Pope  Urban  VIII,  for  the  sum  of  seven  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  thousand  scudi  drawn  out  of  the 
coffers  of  the  Holy  See,  and  another  brother,  Francesco, 
having  been  made  cardinal-bishop,  the  Peretti  were 
compelled  to  restore  the  mosaic  to  its  ancient  position, 
where  it  has  remained  undisturbed  for  213  years. 
Having  been  removed  once  more  to  Rome  in  1852  to  be 
submitted  to  a  fresh  restoration,  it  is  now  very  decently 
exhibited  in  the  hall  of  the  baronial  residence,  to  which 
the  exquisite  remains  of  the  upper  temple  (iEdes  For- 
tunse)  serve  as  foundations.  There  is  scarcely  any  relic 
of  ancient  art  which  has  been  made  the  subject  of  so 
much  learned  controversy.  Athanasius  Kircher  consid- 
ered it  to  represent  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune;  Cardinal 
Polignac,  the  journey  of  Alexander  to  the  oracle  of 
Jupiter  Ammon ;  Cecconi  and  Volpi,  events  in  the  life 
of  Sulla ;  Montf aucon,  a  panoramic  sketch  of  the  course 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   241 

of  the  Nile;  Winckelmann,  the  meeting  of  Helen  and 
Menelaus  in  Egypt;  Chaupy,  the  shipping  of  wheat  for 
the  supply  of  Rome ;  Barthelemy,  the  journey  of  Hadrian 
to  Elephantina;  and  Fea,  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by 
Augustus. 

The  mosaic  undoubtedly  represents,  in  a  sketchy  way, 
scenes  of  the  lower  middle  and  upper  valley  of  the  Nile, 
enlivened  with  scenes  of  divination  by  means  of  the 
flight  of  birds,  of  the  buzzing  of  bees,  of  the  crawling 


General  outline  of  the  mosaic  floor  in  the  apse  of  the  Temple 


of  snakes,  and  of  the  pecking  of  fowls.  But  its  most 
striking  feature  is  the  reproduction  of  twenty  wild 
African  beasts,  with  their  names  appended  in  Greek 
letters.    Comparing  the  aspect  and  the  names  of  these 


242    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

animals  with  the  account  given  of  them  by  ^Ehanus  in  his 
zoological  treatise,  Hepl  Zcocov  ISlottjto^  (**De  Animalium 
Natura"),  and  considering,  furthermore,  that  the  natu- 
ralist was  a  Prsenestinian  by  birth,  probably  a  priest  of 
the  goddess,  and  that  he  lived  and  wrote  at  the  time  of 
Hadrian,  which  is  the  date  of  the  mosaic,  we  are  inclined 
to  call  it  an  illustration-plate  of  the  naturalist's  text,  or 
at  least  a  composition  inspired  either  by  him  directly 
or  by  the  perusal  of  his  Hepl  Zu^oiv. 

There  is  another  mosaic  of  the  same  exquisite  texture 
and  coloring  to  be  seen  in  the  cave  of  the  Fates  (Antro 
delle  Sorti),  which  tradition  considers  to  have  been  exca- 
vated by  Numerius  Suffucius  while  searching  for  the 
labels.  It  was  discovered  in  1869  by  a  local  antiquarian, 
and  has  only  within  the  last  two  years  been  reunited  to 
the  main  group  of  remains  to  which  it  belongs.  The  cave 
is  irregular  in  shape,  with  three  recesses;  and  its  floor 
has  been  very  much  damaged,  the  cave  itself  having  been 
used  as  a  repository  of  quicklime.  It  represents  the  sur- 
face of  the  sea  dotted  with  fish,  among  which  is  a  creature 
with  a  pointed  beak,  peculiar  to  Egypt,  from  which  a 
whole  province  was  named.  Egypt  is  also  referred  to  in 
another  detail  of  the  scene,  the  Pharos  or  lighthouse  of 
Alexandria,  a  conspicuous  landmark  at  the  lower  right 
corner  of  the  picture. 

According  to  the  theory  lately  expounded  by  Marucchi, 
fortune-telling  was  practised  in  this  way :  The  applicant 
having  stated  his  question  standing  or  kneeling  in  the 
apse  before  the  image  of  the  goddess,  his  message  was 
transmitted  by  an  accomplice  to  the  sortilegus  in  charge 
of  the  olive-wood  chest  at  the  other  end  of  the  secret  pas- 
sage. The  answer,  drawn  at  random  from  the  mystic 
receptacle,  was  read  to  the  seeker  from  an  opening  above 
the  apse,  the  voice  of  the  messenger  being  probably 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   243 

altered  and  made  mysterious  and  awesome  by  the 
acoustic  arrangement  of  the  place. 

Among  the  historical  personages  known  to  have  stood 
on  this  mosaic  floor  in  quest  of  a  response,  in  the  later 
period  of  the  Empire,  are  Severus  Alexander  and  Julian 
the  Apostate.  To  the  first,  inquiring  whether  he  should 
be  able  to  escape  from  the  machinations  of  his  cousin 
Helagabalus,  the  answer  was  given  from  Virgil's  JEneid 
(vi,  882) :  Si  qua  fata  aspera  rumpas  —  tu  Marcellus 
eris;  which  may  have  been  interpreted  by  the  inquirer 
in  more  than  one  sense  —  perhaps  as  a  promise  of  a 
brilliant  career,  if  the  difficulties  of  the  moment  could  be 
somehow  overcome.  As  regards  Julian  the  Apostate,  he 
seems  to  have  exerted  himself  so  energetically  in  reviving 
the  fortunes  of  Prseneste  that  a  statue  was  raised  to  him 
in  the  forum,  the  pedestal  of  which  was  discovered  in 
1657.^ 

By  the  irony  of  fate,  this  ancient  and  venerable  city, 
which,  placed  under  the  patronage  of  such  a  goddess, 
ought  to  have  had  a  happy  and  peaceful  life,  stands  fore- 
most amongst  those  that  have  suffered  most.  Whether 
pagan  or  Christian,  whether  seeking  the  help  of  Fortune 
or  of  St.  Agapitus,  whether  republican,  imperial,  or  pon- 
tifical, Prseneste  has  periodically  suffered  such  disasters 
that  we  marvel  at  the  vitality  which  is  still  keeping  the 
place  alive.  In  197  b.  c,  a  conspiracy  having  been 
started  among  the  slaves,  five  hundred  of  them  were 
executed  in  the  public  field.  In  81  the  death  of  young 
Marius  having  induced  the  Prsenestinians  to  surrender 
at  discretion  to  Sulla,  twelve  thousand  of  them  were  put 
to  death,  the  city  was  destroyed,  and  its  territory  given 
up  to  the  enlargement  and  improvement  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. In  A.  D.  1184  the  mediaeval  city  was  stormed  and 
*  Compare  Cor'pvs  Inscr,  Lat.y  vol.  xiv,  n.  2914. 


244    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN   CAMPAGNA 

burned  by  the  people  of  Rome.  In  1298  Teoderico 
Ranieri,  Bishop  of  Pisa  and  lieutenant  of  Pope  Boniface 
VIII,  again  levelled  the  city  to  the  ground,  and  sprinkled 
its  ruins  with  salt,  while  the  few  survivors  were  gathered 
round  the  church  of  the  Madonna  dell'  Aquila,  in  the 
plain  below,  in  a  cluster  of  huts  to  which  the  name  of 
Ci vitas  Papalis  was  given.  Worse  even  was  the  fate 
which  the  unfortunate  city  experienced  in  1437  at  the 
hands  of  the  inexorable  legate  of  Eugenius  IV,  the 
patriarch  of  Aquileia,  Cardinal  Gianvitello  Vitelleschi, 
more  cruel  and  vindictive  than  Sulla  himself.  To  pun- 
ish the  wretched  citizens  for  their  allegiance  to  the  Co- 
lonna,  whose  cause  they  had  embraced  in  the  wars  for 
independence  against  the  papal  power,  Vitelleschi  began 
his  work  of  destruction  on  March  20,  1437,  and  for  forty 
days  pursued  it  so  unmercifully  that  not  even  the  grave 
of  St.  Agapitus  and  the  cathedral  church  were  spared, 
its  bells,  its  doors,  and  its  relics  having  been  first  removed 
to  Corneto,  the  home  of  the  Vitelleschi.  Three  years 
later,  on  April  2,  1440,  Palestrina  was  revenged,  the  car- 
dinal having  been  strangled  in  the  dungeons  of  Castel 
Sant'  Angelo,  by  order  of  the  same  Pope  Eugene  IV 
whose  legate  he  had  been  in  the  campaign  against  the 
Colonna. 

The  anonymous  author  of  the  "Description  of  La- 
tium,"  who  visited  the  city  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  after  it  had  enjoyed  a  period  of  peace 
and  prosperity  under  the  rule  of  the  Barberini,  gives 
a  very  interesting  account  of  the  baronial  palace  and 
court,  just  before  the  Napoleonic  law  abolishing  feudal 
rights  brought  about  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  Cam- 
pagna.  "The  prince's  power,"  he  says,  "is  even  now 
very  little  inferior  to  that  of  the  sovereign;  he  has  the 
right  of  life  and  death,  and  administers  justice  without 


A  SECTION  OF  THE  MOSA] 


<'<)R  ON  A  LARGER  SCALE 


THE  LAND  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT   245 

appeal.  The  prisons  are  beneath  the  palace.  ...  A 
regiment  of  infantry  and  one  of  cavalry  compose  the 
guard  of  the  Prince  of  Palestrina,  and  Count  Scutellari, 
his  master  of  the  horse,  has  the  command  of  both.  A 
major  and  a  captain  reside  in  the  city,  but  these  regi- 
ments are  far  from  being  complete."  The  author  then 
describes  the  apartment  of  Cardinal  Sciarra,  brother  of 
the  prince,  protected  by  "two  small  French  cannon  of 
the  most  curious  workmanship'';  the  drawing-room, 
with  "a  state  canopy  of  crimson  and  gold";  and  the 
state  bedchamber.  '*The  bed,"  he  says,  "which  was 
that  of  Urban  VIII,  is  an  exact  model  of  the  high  altar 
at  St.  Peter's;  there  are  four  twisted  columns,  the  gild- 
ing of  which  must  have  been  of  great  expense;  but  it  is 
to  be  remembered  that  Urban  reigned  twenty-one  years, 
and  was  not  scrupulous  in  the  matter  of  nepotism.  The 
apartments  of  the  prince  and  princess  on  the  floor  above 
.  .  .  are  separated  by  an  open  terrace,  which  is  truly 
delightful  for  the  view  it  enjoys.  Here  is  a  painting  in 
fresco  by  Pietro  da  Cortona,  which  gives  a  complete 
idea  of  the  ancient  temple.  ...  In  the  sacristy  [of  the 
chapel  of  Santa  Rosalia]  beneath  this  terrace  is  a  very 
valuable  collection:  fine  vestments;  relics  richly  set  in 
silver;  a  jpieta  engraved  on  rock  crystal,  set  in  silver  with 
emeralds  and  other  precious  stones  on  a  base  of  jasper; 
small  cabinets  of  various  sizes,  etc.  Five  rooms  compose 
the  armory,  which  is  kept  in  good  order  and  contains 
many  memorials  of  the  bravery  of  the  Sciarra  Colonnas, 
such  as  arms  taken  from  the  Turks  and  Moors.  .  .  . 
There  is  even  a  cuirass  which  belonged  to  a  young  lady 
of  the  family;  the  shape  of  it  is  very  pretty,  but  there  is 
a  hole  made  by  a  musket  ball  so  near  the  heart  that  it 
must  certainly  have  occasioned  the  death  of  the  fair 
Amazon." 


246    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

The  visitor  would  look  in  vain  now  for  these  family 
relics,  these  exquisite  works  of  art,  these  glorious  me- 
morials of  the  past.  The  palace  is  deserted,  the  roof  and 
the  vaulted  ceilings  are  no  longer  waterproof,  and  the 
family  relics  have  been  sold  to  Jews  for  one  twentieth  of 
their  market  value. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    LAND    OF    CICERO 

AMONG  the  incidents  of  the  evolution  of  human 
society  in  Latium  none  strikes  the  student  as 
forcibly  as  the  superposition  of  the  Abbey  of 
Grottaferrata  on  the  Tusculanum  of  Cicero.  I  speak  in 
a  general  sense,  because  it  is  not  certain  that  the  walls 
of  reticulated  masonry  upon  which  the  abbey  rests  are 
the  same  within  which  the  orator  held  his  "Tusculan" 
meetings,  but  for  my  purpose  it  is  enough  to  take  for 
granted  that,  as  in  ancient  times  Cicero's  villa  was  the 
"attraction"  of  this  district,  so  the  Abbey  of  Grottafer- 
rata constitutes  now  its  most  conspicuous  landmark. 

Abbot  Giuseppe  Cozza  in  his  dissertation  on  this 
subject  ^  —  a  subject  dear  to  his  brother  monks  Since  the 
time  when  Cardinal  Carlo  Barberini  had  found  within  a 
stone's  throw  from  their  convent  the  villa  of  C.  Julius 
Asper,  rich  in  marbles  of  every  description  ^  —  dwells  on 
the  many  points  of  comparison  between  the  two  places. 
"Here  where  Cicero  and  his  guests  devoted  their  time 
to  the  study  of  Greek  philosophers,  the  Greek  disciples 
of  Saint  Basil  have  spent  their  vigils  over  the  books  of 
the  holy  Fathers.  Here  where  Cicero  and  Lucullus  had 
collected  a  library  of  standard  works,  which  the  hand 
of  time  has  dispersed  or  destroyed,  the  Basilians  had 

^  Giuseppe  Cozza-Luzzi,  //  Tuscvla^no  di  M.  Tullio  Cicerone,  Rome, 
1866. 

^  Gio.  Battista  de  Rossi,  Ricerche  archeologiche  nel  territorio  TiLsculanOt 
Rome,  Salviucci,  1874,  p.  193. 


248    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

formed  another,  so  rich  in  manuscripts  and  palimpsests 
that  —  in  spite  of  thefts  and  spoliations  from  '  commen- 
datarii '  and  from  popes  —  it  yielded  to  Cardinals  Mai 
and  Pitra  many  astonishing  finds  in  history  and  litera- 
ture. Here  where  the  orator  had  collected  a  consider- 
able number  of  works  of  art,  which  have  probably 
perished  in  a  lime-kiln,  the  monks  pride  themselves  on 
the  possession  of  Domenichino's  famous  set  of  frescoes, 
of  Annibale  Carracci's  altar-piece,  of  the  mosaic  picture 
of  the  twelve  apostles,  and  of  an  archaeological  museum. 
'  Ce  -n'est  pas  sans  charme  que  Ton  entend  resonner  la 
langue  de  Platon  et  de  saint  Jean  Chrysostome  pres  de 
la  villa  ou  Ciceron  avait  reunie  une  precieuse  collection 
de  livres  et  de  chefs-d'-oeuvre  empruntes  a  la  Grece.' " 

Towards  the  end  of  the  Republic  this  section  of  the 
Tusculan  Hills  had  become  the  "Lincoln's  Inn  Fields," 
the  ** Lawyers'  Corner"  of  the  Campagna,  so  many 
members  of  the  bar  having  bought  property  and  built 
villas  and  cottages  near  the  springs  of  the  Aqua  Julia, 
in  order  that  they  might  discuss  their  cases  and  help 
one  another  with  texts  or  advice  before  driving  to  town 
and  appearing  in  court.  By  referring  to  the  map  on 
the  opposite  page  this  clustering  of  villas  around  that 
of  Cicero  —  like  planets  round  a  central  sun  —  will  be 
made  clear  to  the  reader,  better  than  by  any  description ; 
and  he  will  understand  how  easy  it  was  for  those  leading 
members  of  the  bar  to  keep  in  contact,  and  exchange 
their  views  both  on  politics  and  on  points  of  law.  Thus 
in  the  case  against  Verres,  Cicero  appeared  for  the  pro- 
secution and  his  neighbor  Hortensius  for  the  defence. 
On  other  occasions  they  were  colleagues  in  the  defence 
of  Rabirius,  charged  with  the  murder  of  a  tribune  of 
the  plebs;  of  Murena  and  Sulla,  accused  of  bribery  in 


MAP  OF  THE  DISTRICT  OF  TUSCULUM 

Comprising  Cicero's  villa  at  the  CoUe  delle  Ginestre,  as  well  as  the  most  important 
ancient  and  modem  ones  in  the  territory  of  Frascati  and  Qrottaf  errata 


250    WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

canvassing  for  the  consulship;  of  Flaccus  and  Sextius, 
and  Scaurus  and  Milo,  for  other  offences.  Niebuhr 
says  of  them:  *'At  the  time  of  Sulla's  death,  B.  c.  78, 
Cicero  was  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  had  already 
spoken  several  times  and  claimed  great  attention. 
Hortensius  was  older  than  he  and  not  free  from  envy. 
.  .  .  He  had  his  share  of  all  the  depravities  of  his  age, 
and  it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  he  sold  his  own  con- 
victions, a  thing  from  which  Cicero  was  altogether  free." 
In  reading  the  magnificent  orations  we  find  that  Cicero 
counted  more  upon  emotional  effects  than  upon  legal 
evidence.  He  was  not  a  lawyer  in  the  present  sense  of 
the  term.  The  title  of  orator  had  a  wider  application 
among  the  Latins  than  with  us.  With  us  it  means  a 
public  man  excelling  in  eloquence,  whereas  the  Latins 
applied  the  title  to  any  one  accustomed  to  address  the 
people,  either  in  popular  assemblies  or  in  the  courts  of 
law.  A  Roman  advocate  was  not  obliged  to  read  law 
through  many  a  long  vigil  before  obtaining  his  first  brief; 
he  need  not  be  recognized  as  a  sound  and  able  lawyer 
before  entering  the  temple  of  Themis.  The  techni- 
calities of  each  case  were  discussed  —  previous  to  the 
calling  of  it  by  the  bench  —  between  the  pleader  and  an 
expert  at  law,  that  is  to  say,  "a  professional  deliverer  of 
legal  advice,"  such  as  Tiberius  Coruncanius,  consul  in 
281  B.  c,  the  first  public  man  known  to  have  adopted 
this  practice  as  a  remunerative  profession.  The  term 
advocate,  at  the  time  of  Cicero,  did  not  mean  a  pleader 
in  the  courts,  but  simply  a  friend  and  supporter  of  the 
accused,  to  whom  he  gave  countenance  by  his  presence 
at  the  trial.  Thus  in  the  case  of  L.  Cornelius  Balbus, 
accused  of  having  illegally  assumed  Roman  citizenship, 
acquittal  was  granted  not  so  much  from  the  effect  of 
Cicero's  speech  as  from  the  impression  created  on  the 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  251 

jury  by  the  presence  of  a  deputation  of  fellow-citizens, 
men  of  the  highest  respectability,  who  had  journeyed 
eighteen  hundred  and  forty-one  miles  from  Cadiz  to 
avert,  if  possible,  by  their  mute  appeal,  the  calamity  of 
a  conviction. 

We  have  therefore  two  distinct  sets  of  men  connected 
with  a  Roman  court,  the  ''patroni  causarum,"  who, 
like  Cicero,  spoke  for  the  prosecution  or  for  the  defence, 
and  the  "  juris-consulti,"  chamber-counsel,  who  on  the 
payment  of  a  fee  expounded  to  advice-seekers  the  doc- 
trines of  the  law  and  informed  them  of  their  rights  and 
liabilities.  These  jurisconsults  used  to  pace  up  and 
down  the  pavement  of  the  Forum,  just  as  the  Scotch 
advocates  have  paced  until  recent  times  that  of  the 
Parliament  House  at  Edinburgh,  waiting  for  applica- 
tions; and  under  their  peripatetic  tuition  young  men  of 
a  judicial  turn  of  mind  prepared  themselves  to  practise 
in  courts.  Thus  Cicero  is  known  to  have  attached 
himself  to  Scsevola,  in  whose  family  the  profession  of 
jurisconsult  had  been  hereditary,  and  to  have  derived 
so  much  profit  from  the  borrowed  information  that  he 
could  frame  the  legal  part  of  the  case  in  defence  of 
Murena  in  the  space  of  three  days.  This  is  the  reason 
why  knowledge  of  the  law  was  considered  by  him  only 
a  secondary  object  in  comparison  with  other  qualifica- 
tions. In  the  majority  of  cases  orators  made  appeal, 
not  to  the  understanding  but  to  the  emotional  feelings 
of  the  popular  judges.  A  subtle  mise-en-scene  of  the 
case  was  more  essential  to  its  successful  ending  than  a 
rigid  debate  on  points  of  law;  jests  were  substitued  for 
quotations  from  the  code,  and  loose  harangues  for  a  plain 
statement  of  facts.  Rhetoric  and  logic  had  not  then, 
as  with  us,  a  distinct  domain.  The  warm  sun  of  the 
south  quickened  the  sensibilities  of  both  the  speaker  and 


252    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

his  audience,  giving  to  the  former  leave  to  venture  upon 
the  boldest  appeals  without  doing  violence  to  decorum. 

Brutus,  in  his  attempt  to  overthrow  a  dynasty,  counted 
more  on  the  exhibition  of  Lucretia's  bleeding  body  in 
the  Forum  than  on  his  fiery  appeal  for  vengeance.  The 
withdrawal  of  the  plebs  to  the  Sacred  Hill  was  brought 
about  by  the  appearance  in  the  same  place  of  a  veteran 
imprisoned  for  debt,  whose  breast  showed  the  marks 
of  the  beating  he  had  endured  at  the  instigation  of  the 
creditor.  Manlius  was  acquitted  because  his  trial  hap- 
pened to  take  place  in  view  of  the  Capitol,  which  he 
had  saved  from  the  Gauls.  And  when  Cicero  stood  by 
Fonteius,  accused  of  corrupt  practices  in  the  exercise  of 
the  prsetorship,  he  pointed  out  to  the  jury  the  sister  of 
his  client  —  a  vestal  virgin  —  clinging  to  him  in  pas- 
sionate embrace,  and  exclaimed,  "Let  it  not  be  said 
hereafter  that  the  eternal  fire  which  has  been  preserved 
by  the  midnight  care  and  watching  of  this  priestess 
was  extinguished  by  her  tears."  Sometimes,  in  cases  of 
murder,  a  picture  representing  the  foul  deed  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  trial,  that  the  eyes  of  the  judges  might 
rest  on  the  hideous  scene  while  their  ears  were  listening 
to  the  cry  of  vengeance  against  the  murderer.  Quin- 
tilian,  however,  mentions  one  or  two  cases  in  which  these 
attempts  at  dramatic  effect  resulted  in  ludicrous  failure. 
For  instance,  Glyco  Spiridion  once,  in  the  midst  of  an 
impassioned  appeal,  had  a  boy  brought  into  court, 
apparently  weeping  for  the  loss  of  his  parents;  but  on 
being  asked  why  he  cried  so  piteously,  the  urchin,  badly 
tutored  in  his  part,  answered,  "Because  I  have  just  been 
birched  by  the  master." 

A  rich  and  influential  offender  stood  his  trial  attended 
by  a  great  number  of  counsel.  Scaurus,  for  instance, 
had  secured  the  services  of  the  six  most  eminent "  patroni 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  253 

causarum"  of  the  day,  —  Clodius  Pulcher,  Marcellus, 
Callidius,  Messalla  Niger,  Hortensius,  and  Cicero. 
They  divided  the  task  by  each  taking  a  separate  part  of 
the  charge,  the  whole  case  being  afterwards  summed  up 
by  the  advocate  who  was  thought  likely  to  do  it  most 
effectually.  This  part  of  the  duty  —  the  peroration  — 
generally  devolved  on  Cicero,  and  if  the  written  text 
of  such  perorations  represents  really  the  words  uttered 
by  him  under  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  we  must 
acknowledge  that  no  one  was  better  qualified  to  bring 
a  case  to  a  successful  issue.  He,  however,  strongly 
condemns  the  practice  of  allowing  several  counsel  to 
speak  upon  the  same  side,  because,  not  having  followed 
closely  the  course  of  the  long  debate,  they  were  apt  to 
weary  the  court  by  going  over  the  same  ground  which 
had  been  previously  trodden  by  their  colleagues.  The 
Roman  courts  must  have  been  grateful  to  Pompey,  who 
in  his  third  consulship  (52  b.  c.)  made  compulsory  the 
use  of  the  clepsydra  in  trials,  by  which  the  pleaders  could 
time  the  duration  of  their  speeches. 

It  may  please  some  of  my  readers  of  advanced  views 
to  know  that  in  ancient  Rome  ladies  were  admitted  to 
the  bar,  Hortensia,  Amsesia  Sentia,  and  Afrania  stand- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  list.  Hortensia,  the  daughter  of 
the  orator  and  a  brilliant  speaker  herself,  rose  to  fame 
under  the  Triumvirate.  Lepidus  and  Mark  Antony  hav- 
ing imposed  a  tax  on  Roman  matrons,  and  no  lawyer 
having  come  forward  to  defend  their  rights  for  fear  of 
proscription,  Hortensia  championed  her  sex,  and  spoke 
so  eloquently  before  the  magistrates  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  tax  was  at  once  remitted. 

Cicero  was  apt  to  lose  his  presence  of  mind  and  en- 
danger the  case  of  his  client  by  his  own  nervousness. 
The  day  he  rose  to  defend  Milo  against  the  charge  of 


254    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

having  murdered  Clodius,  he  was  so  affected  by  the 
immense  multitude  which  thronged  the  Forum,  and  by 
the  military  precautions  taken  to  insure  order  in  case 
of  a  riot,  that  he  showed  himself  utterly  unequal  to 
the  occasion.  It  is  true  that  the  day  was  charged  with 
perilous  excitement;  the  shops  were  shut,  house-doors 
barricaded;  so  that  even  the  boldest  orator  might  have 
trembled,  seeing  on  every  side  the  glitter  of  arms,  and 
hearing  the  hoarse  murmurs  of  the  populace,  only  kept 
back  by  the  spears  of  the  soldiers  from  rushing  into  the 
inclosure  of  the  Rostra. 

The  speech  which  has  been  handed  down  to  us  as 
that  which  Cicero  delivered  on  this  great  occasion  is  the 
most  splendid  of  his  orations,  and  it  seems  impossible 
that  it  should  not  have  been  successful ;  but  the  truth  is 
that  we  have  it  as  it  was  composed,  not  as  it  was  spoken ; 
for  the  orator  lost  his  presence  of  mind,  when  he  rose 
for  the  defence,  and  owing  to  the  agitation  under  which 
he  labored,  he  lost  the  case,  and  Milo  was  sentenced  to 
banishment.  When  in  his  exile  from  Rome  he  after- 
wards read  the  speech  which  we  possess  and  which  his 
advocate  intended  to  deliver,  he  exclaimed,  '*If  Cicero 
had  spoken  thus,  I  should  not  now  be  eating  figs  at 
Marseilles." 

Nineteen  authors,  whose  names  and  writings  are 
recorded  in  a  footnote,^  have  attempted  to  find  the  exact 

*  Mattel,  Memorie  delV  antico  Tusculo,  Rome,  1711;  Sciommari,  Badia 
di  Grottaf errata,  Rome,  1728;  Volpi,  Vetus  Latium  profanum,  vol.  viii, 
1742;  Zuzzeri,  Antica  villa  scoperta  sul  Tusculo,  Venice,  1746;  Piacentini, 
Epitome  grcecas  palcBographice,  Rome,  1743;  Cardoni,  De  Tusculano 
Ciceronis,  Rome,  1757;  Capmartin  de  Chaupy,  Maison  d' Horace,  vol.  ii, 
p.  237;  Canina,  Tusculo,  Rome,  1841;  Kihhy,  Analisi  dei  dintorni  di 
Roma,  second  edition,  1848,  vol.  iii,  p.  334;  De  Rossi,  AnnalidalV  Istituto, 


THE  BEST  KNOWN  LIKENESS  OF  CICERO  AT  ABOUT 
THIRTY-FIVE  YEARS  OF  AGE 


"""%?3',., 


OF 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  257 

location  of  the  orator's  villa.  I  myself  took  up  the  prob- 
lem in  1884,  and  my  conjecture  that  it  must  have  stood 
on  the  Colle  delle  Ginestre,  just  above  Grottaf errata, 
has  been  accepted  by  the  highest  authority  on  the  to- 
pography of  the  "juga  Telegoni,"^  Professor  Grossi- 
Gondi,  the  genial  author  of  the  "  Ville  Tusculane."^ 

Leaving  Frascati  by  the  road  to  Marino,  and  follow- 
ing it  for  one  mile  past  the  gate  of  the  Villa  Cavalletti, 
if  we  turn  first  to  the  right  by  the  old  Via  Latina,  and 
then  take  the  first  lane  on  the  left,  it  will  lead  us  easily 
and  unmistakably  to  the  Colle  delle  Ginestre.  The  lane 
affords  as  pleasant  a  walk  as  the  wandering  student  of 
ancient  life  could  wish,  past  vineyards  and  olive  yards 
and  fruit  farms,  and  treading  at  every  step  on  some 
remains  of  the  past.  Nowhere  does  there  exist  within 
an  hour's  distance  from  the  gates  of  a  great  capital 
a  district  like  the  Tusculanum  where  the  air  is  more 
salubrious,  the  site  more  smiling,  the  waters  more 
abundant,  the  woods  more  shady,  the  vineyards  more 
luxuriant,  the  fruit  more  luscious,  the  enjoyment  of  a 
simple  life  more  keen,  and  the  view  over  land  and  sea, 

1873,  p.  208,  and  Bvllettino  Archeol.  Crist,  1872,  p.  106;  Rocchi,  La  Badia 
di  Grottaferrata,  Rome,  1874;  Lanciani,  Bidlettino  MunicipalCy  a.  1884, 
p.  192;  Tommasetti,  Via  Latina,  Rome,  1886,  p.  139;  Seghetti,  Tusculo  e 
Frascati ;  Bahr,  "  Tusculum,"  in  Jahrbiicher  des  Pddagogiums  in  Magde- 
burg ;  O.  E.  Schmidt,  "Cicero's  Villen,"  in  Neue  Jahrbuch  fiir  klassische 
Alterthum  Geschichte,  vol.  iii,  1899;  Grossi-Gondi,  La  villeggiatura  Tus- 
culana  di  Cicerone,  Rome,  1905. 

*  "  The  hills  of  Telegonus,"  the  alleged  son  of  Ulysses  and  Circe,  and 
founder  of  Tusculum.  Hence  the  expressions  "Telegoni  moenia,  Telegoni 
muri,  Telegoni  jugera,  Circaea  moenia,"  in  constant  use  with  the  poets. 
To  him  a  statue  was  raised  in  the  forum  of  Tusculum,  the  pedestal  of 
which  was  discovered  by  Prince  Lucien  Bonaparte  in  the  time  of  Pius  VII. 
It  has  since  been  placed  in  the  vestibule  of  the  Villa  RuflSnella. 

*  Rome,  1901,  vol.  i. 


258    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

over  lakes  and  mountains,  more  restful  and  pleasing. 
Parini  sang  of  this  district :  — 

"  Qua  vaghezza  mi  guida 
Di  visitare  i  vostri  colli  ameni, 
Queste  vostre  feconde  acque  correnti. 

Tra  voi,  beate  genti, 
Fama  e  nel  Lazio  che  natura  arnica 

Tutti  raccolga  i  beni 

Che  coir  altre  divide." 

In  the  immense  space  at  our  feet,  from  the  range  of 
the  Apennines  upon  which  snow  shines  sometimes  even 
in  the  heart  of  summer  to  the  line  of  the  sea,  from  the 
foam  of  which  Aphrodite  was  born,  the  eye  roams  over 
cornfields  and  pastures  and  meadows,  with  glens  wind- 
ing like  green  streams  towards  the  coast,  and  long  lines 
of  mausoleums  and  aqueducts  converging  towards  the 
gates  of  the  city.  "Tusculum,  Albe  et  Algide  .  .  .  se 
trouvent  tous  trois  dans  un  canton  qui  merite  la  mention 
la  plus  particuliere.  C'est  un  corps  isole  de  montagnes 
douze  milles  a  I'orient  de  Rome.  La  reunion  ainsi  que 
la  qualite  de  tout  ce  qu'on  peut  desirer  de  la  part  de  la 
Nature  fait  son  premier  prix.  Hants  sommets,  vallees 
delicieuses,  coteaux  rians,  champs  fertiles,  bois  majestu- 
eux,  lacs  merveilleux,  eaux  agreables,  tout  cela  non  seule- 
ment  s'y  trouve,  mais  le  compose.  Un  second  merite  plus 
touchant  encore  que  le  premier,  c'est  que  le  bon  air  et 
Tagreable  frais,  banni  de  toute  la  plaine  d'alentour  .  .  . 
semblent  s'y  etre  refugies,  et  y  avoir  etabli  leur  regne."  ^ 

No  wonder  that  the  ancients  should  have  shown 
partiality  for  these  hills.  Cicero  loved  the  Tusculanum 
above  his  other  earthly  possessions,  and  always  refers 
to  it  in  terms  of  endearment,  such  as  ol/co?  <^tXo9,  and  the 
like.    He  wrote  once  from  Lucrinum  that,  whenever  he 

^  Chaupy,  ii,  7. 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  259 

happened  to  be  walking  out  of  the  grounds  for  the  sake 
of  exercise,  his  footsteps  would  always  carry  him  unin- 
tentionally in  the  direction  of  Tusculum.  About  sixty 
letters  are  dated  from  the  villa  of  his  choice,  where  he 
must  have  resided  almost  without  interruption  in  the  years 
46  and  45  b.  c,  which  were  those  of  Csesar's  victories 
at  Thapsus  and  Munda,  and  of  Cato's  death.  Here  he 
places  the  scene  of  the  disputations  *'De  Divinatione" 
with  his  brother  Quintus;  here  he  wrote  the  treatise  "  De 
Oratione"  and  the  lost  one,  "De  Gloria";  here,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Sallust,  he  began  to  shape  into  a  new  form 
the  books  *'De  Republica,"  and  here  were  debated  the 
"Tusculan  questions"  concerning  the  problem  of  hap- 
piness. Brutus,  Varro,  Lucceius,  Sallust,  Tyro,  Atticus, 
Hirtius,  and  Dolabella  claimed  in  turn  his  hospitality, 
and  whenever  host  and  guests,  engaged  in  peripatetic 
controversies,  found  themselves  in  need  of  a  rare  edition, 
the  doors  of  the  library  of  the  Lucullean  villa  were  most 
liberally  thrown  open  to  them. 

The  first  mention  of  a  Tusculan  property  occurs  in 
letter  i,  5,  to  Atticus,  dated  63  b.  c.  According  to  Pliny, 
Cicero  had  purchased  it  from  Sulla's  estate,  in  proof 
of  which  statement  the  naturalist  mentions  a  fresco  re- 
presenting a  gallant  deed  of  the  dictator  in  the  Marsic 
war,  which  could  still  be  seen  painted  on  the  wall  of  the 
house  (in  Vespasian's  time).  Cicero,  however,  mentions 
as  his  predecessors  in  the  ownership  of  the  place  a  Catu- 
lus  and  a  Vettius.  It  was  a  dwelling  of  modest  size;  in 
fact,  whenever  he  writes  about  it  he  uses  the  diminutive 
form,  which  is  at  the  same  time  a  form  of  endearment :  a 
porticula  (small  veranda),  a  tecta  amhulatiuncula  (small 
covered  walk),  an  atriolum  (small  court),  and  so  on. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  their  modesty  of  size,  these  coun- 
try houses  were  of  great  value,  and  commanded  a  high 


260    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

price  in  the  market.  An  indemnity  of  half  a  million 
sesterces  (twenty  thousand  dollars)  for  damages  was 
granted  to  Cicero  himself  after  his  return  from  banish- 
ment, which  sum,  he  writes  to  Atticus  (letter  350),  did 


A  rustic  gate  of  a  Tusculan  villa  (Falconieri) 

not  represent  two  thirds  of  his  actual  losses.  In  another 
letter  to  Atticus  (591)  a  certain  Pilius  is  said  to  have  pur- 
chased five  eighths  of  an  acre  at  the  exorbitant  price  of 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  sesterces  (four  thou- 
sand six  hundred  dollars).  To  the  value  of  land  we  must 
obviously  add  that  of  the  works  of  art  with  which  the 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  261 

house  was  replenished;  of  the  columns  and  friezes  of 
its  courts ;  of  the  exotic  plants  and  marble  fountains  of 
the  gardens ;  of  the  marble  and  bronze  groups,  and  other 
such  luxuries,  the  passion  for  which,  unknown  to  the 
stern  republicans  of  the  previous  age,  had  become  con- 
tagious in  Cicero's  time.  We  are  informed  that,  besides 
the  house  with  its  suitable  accommodation  for  guests, 
the  villa  contained  a  lyceum  and  an  academy,  connected 
by  paths  running  through  walls  of  evergreens,  the  fa- 
vorite haunts  of  the  orator's  friends.  The  masterpiece 
of  his  collections  seems  to  have  been  a  Hermathena, 
which  Atticus  had  purchased  in  Greece.  *' Thy  Herma- 
thena," Cicero  writes  in  a  letter  of  acknowledgment, 
"gives  me  intense  satisfaction,  and  I  have  placed  it 
so  advantageously  in  the  gymnasium  that  the  whole 
edifice  looks,  as  it  were,  an  *HXtou  dvddrjfxa.''  Other 
statues  had  been  purchased  at  Megara  for  the  sum  of 
two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  sesterces  (nine  thou- 
sand six  hundred  dollars),  and  nearly  the  whole  library 
at  Athens.  This  last  apartment  contained  bronze  hermse 
of  eminent  men,  on  shafts  of  Pentelic  marble;  a  Her- 
meracles,  and  a  figure  of  Mars,  which  seemed  quite 
out  of  place  in  such  a  room;  and  a  group  of  Maenads, 
which  also  had  been  bought  much  against  Cicero's  will 
by  Fabius  Gallus.  The  Muses,  he  complains,  would 
have  been  much  more  welcome  companions  in  a  "shrine 
of  learning."  Here  he  wrote  his  epistles,  the  oldest  of 
which,  concerning  the  Tusculanum,  dates  from  63  b.  c, 
the  latest  (remaining)  from  39,  a  period  of  twenty-four 
years. 

By  his  first  wife,  Terentia,  Cicero  had  two  children,  — 
a  daughter  Tullia,  or  Tulliola,  whose  death  in  45  caused 
him  the  most  acute  distress,  and  a  son  Marcus,  who 
survived  the  proscription,  and  died  a  rallie  of  the  new 


262    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

regime.  I  have  spoken  in  "  Pagan  and  Christian  Rome  " 
(p.  300)  of  the  alleged  discovery  made  on  April  16,  1485, 
of  Tulliola's  exquisitely  preserved  body,  at  the  sixth 
milestone  of  the  Appian  Way,  near  the  gate  of  the  Villa 
Quintiliorum.  Besides  the  fact  that  the  body  was  that 
of  a  young  and  tender  maiden,  while  Tulliola  is  known 
to  have  died  in  childbirth  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  we 
know  that  Cicero's  daughter  was  laid  to  rest  in  the 
family  estate,  on  the  banks  of  the  Crabra  stream.  And 
rest  indeed  she  needed  after  such  a  career  in  life !  Born 
in  78,  she  first  married,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  Calpurnius 
Piso  Frugi,  whom  she  lost  during  her  father's  banish- 
ment. At  twenty-two  she  was  married  again,  to  Furius 
Crassipes,  a  young  man  of  rank  and  large  property, 
whom  she  soon  divorced  for  unknown  reasons.  At 
twenty-eight  she  wedded  a  third  husband,  P.  Cornelius 
Dolabella,  a  thorough  profligate.  On  the  19th  of  May, 
49,  she  was  delivered  of  a  premature  child,  who  died 
soon  afterwards,  and  at  the  beginning  of  45  a  son  was 
born.  As  soon  as  she  was  suflSciently  recovered  to  stand 
the  fatigues  of  a  journey,  she  accompanied  her  father  to 
Tusculum,  where  she  died  in  February,  in  the  full  splen- 
dor of  her  womanhood.  It  seems  as  if  the  privilege  of 
gazing  at  her  tomb  from  the  window  of  his  chamber, 
or  from  the  terrace  of  the  garden,  must  have  made  the 
Tusculanum  even  dearer  to  the  sorrowing  father. 

Letters  146  and  153-155,  written  to  Quintus  between 
59  and  54  b.  c,  supply  other  particulars.  We  learn 
from  them  that  Cicero  was  in  the  habit  of  rising  before 
the  break  of  day,  and  of  setting  himself  at  once  to  work 
with  the  help  of  a  lamp,  which  Quintus  had  purchased 
at  Samos ;  that  on  the  third  day  of  January  his  birthday 
was  celebrated,  Varro,  Atticus,  Sallust,  Papirius,  Pseto, 
Tyro,  and  Brutus  gathering  round  his  table;  that  his  son 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO 


263 


^^BB^^P^^oR^H^Bkj 

riHp 

N 

^^^^^ 

4 

t,    -'^•r-rh-i^7^gf^fjjgj0gki>^.-<,-.       --                       ..,"1.        -  _ J 

Wv»   ' 

1 

"^                    -1 

a?                                                                                                                ^ iiiji         I        .w--J»i»iiJ 

-  il  oii,^  .^  >:— ««^.  .  .—m-.^*^  ^.— --  -  ~~^-^                      llfill 

A  view  of  the  \ill;i  platform  excavated  1741-46,  where  the  tile  inscribed  with 
Cicero's  name  was  found 


Marcus,  although  of  extravagant  and  dissipated  habits, 
did  not  object  occasionally  to  sharing  with  his  father  the 
quiet  of  the  villa ;  and  that  he  counted  among  his  neigh- 
bors Gabinius,  Lucullus,  Hortensius,  and  Crassus,  in 
whose  gardens  the  discussion  '*De  Oratore"  had  taken 
place.  But  the  happy  and  peaceful  days  were  soon  to 
be  over:  at  the  close  of  the  summer  of  43  Cicero  received 
the  first  warnings  of  the  collapse  of  his  political  aspira- 
tions and  of  the  downfall  of  his  party.  Mark  Antony, 
whom  he  had  attacked  with  unmeasured  violence  in 
his  Philippic  oration,  having  become  a  member  of  the 
Triumvirate  on  November  27,  43  b.  c,  Cicero's  name 
was  at  once  included  in  the  list  of  the  proscribed.  He 
must  have  left  the  villa  at  night  so  as  to  reach  Antium 
before  messengers  from  Rome  would  have  made  his 
escape    impossible.     Driven   by   stress    of   weather   to 


264    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Circeii,  he  succeeded  in  reaching  his  own  villa  at 
Formise;  but  on  trying  to  reach  the  shore  again  he  was 
overtaken  by  Antony's  emissaries,  whose  instructions 
were  to  cut  off  his  head  and  his  hands,  and  make  a 
public  exhibition  of  the  gruesome  relics  at  the  Rostra. 
Cicero  perished  on  the  7th  of  December,  43,  in  the  sixty- 
fourth  year  of  his  life. 

The  ruins  seen  at  the  extreme  point  of  the  Colle  delle 
Ginestre,  just  where  the  path  which  we  have  been  fol- 
lowing begins  its  abrupt  descent  to  Grottaferrata,  are 
of  no  consequence  whatever,  —  two  walls  of  reticulated 
masonry,  and  nothing  more!  If  my  belief  in  their 
identity  could  be  made  acceptable  to  those  in  power  — 
and  this  end  could  be  attained  only  after  a  diligent 
search  of  the  site  —  those  two  walls  would  become  a  na- 
tional monument  and  the  goal  of  a  pious  and  reverent 
pilgrimage  by  all  lovers  of  eloquence  and  masterly 
statesmanship.  There  is  but  one  genuine  relic  of 
^^^^^^  Cicero's  house  left  to  us,  —  a 
^"'  "•  '^-^^'^^^^^^L.  fra2:ment  of  a  tile   inscribed 

r     IVm^I  l^J^f -|  ^  ^™  "^^  name,   m  tvli,  dis- 

\    5^n|   W^l'^        covered    by    Zuzzeri    in    the 
^^'^  excavations  of  1741-46,  and 

The    name    of    Cicero    (M[arci]     ^^^  preserved   in    the    Kirch- 

TVL[i]i)     stamped    on    the    eriau  Muscum  at  the  Collegio 
bricks  used  in  the  building  of    Romauo.    That  scal  docs  not 

his  villa  at   lusculum  •       'f.       i  i  i 

signify  that  the  orator  owned 
brick-kilns  in  the  territory  of  Tusculum,  the  produce  of 
which  he  would  sell  to  builders ;  it  means  that  the  bricks 
and  tiles  stamped  with  that  name  were  made  for  Cicero's 
villa;  in  other  words,  that  Cicero  had  secured  from  a 
local  kiln  a  certain  supply  of  building  materials  "made 
to  order."   The  bricks  used  in  the  structure  of  Caesar's 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  ^65 

villa  on  the  lake  of  Nemi  are  likewise  labelled  with 
the  name  caisar,  and  nobody  suspects  the  dictator  of 
having  entered  into  a  brickmaking  speculation.  As  re- 
gards the  objection  suggested,  arising  from  the  fact  of 
the  discovery  having  been  made  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance from  the  Colle  delle  Ginestre,  we  must  not  forget 
that  the  villa  was  pillaged  and  damaged  by  the  partisans 
of  Gabinius  so  rapaciously  that  even  the  trees  were 
transplanted  from  one  place  to  another. 

Cicero,  as  we  have  just  seen,  died  in  43  b.  c.  Who 
knows  through  how  many  hands  the  property  may  have 
passed  from  the  year  43  to  the  downfall  of  the  Empire  ? 
Even  the  name  of  its  famous  owner  must  have  been 
forgotten  with  the  lapse  of  time,  because  in  a  district  in 
which  so  many  classic  names  still  survive  no  mention 
of  a  Tullianum  occurs  in  mediaeval  or  Renaissance 
documents.  It  appears  that  at  the  end  of  the  first  cen- 
tury A.  D.  the  villa  was  owned  by  (Ti.  Catius)  Silius 
Italicus,  the  bard  of  the  Punic  wars.  Pliny  speaks  of 
him  as  an  eccentric  person  on  the  subject  of  country 
residences,  purchasing  one  after  another,  especially  if 
connected  with  names  of  poets  and  orators,  and  getting 
tired  of  them  as  soon  as  a  new  playground  was  offered  for 
sale.  Silius  had  shown  a  taste  for  poetry  and  eloquence 
from  his  boyhood,  taking  Virgil  and  Cicero  for  models; 
he  acquired  prominence,  however,  and  honors  and 
wealth,  more  as  a  barrister  than  as  a  poet,  his  "Punica" 
being  a  dull  metrical  translation  of  Livy  and  Polybius 
rather  than  an  inspired  poem.  He  seems  to  have  spent 
the  last  part  of  his  life,  while  in  the  grip  of  an  incurable 
disease,  in  an  ex-Ciceronian  villa,^  where  he  starved 
himself  to  death  in  the  year  100,  and  in  the  seventy- 
fifth  of  his  life.    But  where  did  the  sad  event  occur  — 

'  "  Silius  .  .  .  jugera  facundi  qui  Ciceronis  habes.'*   Martial,  xi,  49,  2. 


266    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

in  the  orator's  Campanian  estate  near  Baise,  or  in  the 
Tusculanum?  A  discovery  made  in  1882  at  Fontana 
Candida,  near  Frascati,  tells  in  favor  of  the  latter  place. 
It  concerns  a  funeral  tablet  put  up  at  the  expense  of  a 
collegium  salutare,  in  memory  of  Crescens,  a  freedman 
of  Silius  Italicus,  and  very  likely  steward  of  his  estate, 
which  we  know  to  have  been  bequeathed  by  the  poet  to 
his  son  and  namesake  Silius. 

The  mention  of  this  collegium  salutare,  the  head- 
quarters of  which  were  at  Lanuvium,  is  not  without  in- 
terest for  the  study  of  social  life  among  the  fashionable 
landowners  on  the  Alban  Hills.  It  was  an  association 
formed  among  the  lower  employees  of  the  villas  for  the 
purpose  of  guaranteeing  a  decent  funeral  service  to  its 
members.  One  of  the  articles  of  its  statutes,  the  text 
of  which,  engraved  on  marble,  was  discovered  at  Civita 
Lavinia  in  1816,^  provides  that  if  the  death  of  a  member 
should  take  place  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  from 
Lanuvium,  full  honors  were  to  be  paid  to  his  memory; 
if  beyond  that  limit,  the  association  would  only  be  repre- 
sented at  the  funeral  by  a  deputation  of  three  members. 
Fontana  Candida  is  within  the  statute  distance,  and 
therefore  we  may  safely  assume  that  Crescens,  the  care- 
taker of  the  poet's  villa,  was  buried  with  full  honors. 

From  what  has  been  stated  in  the  preceding  pages  it 
is  evident  that  the  Abbey  of  Grottaferrata  has  no  claim 
to  link  the  fate  of  Cicero's  Tusculanum  with  its  own. 
The  eight  fluted  columns  of  Parian  marble  in  the  nave 
of  the  chapel  —  which  Cardinal  Guadagni  shamefully 
inclosed  in  a  brick  sheaf  in  1754  —  were  found  about 
1020  by  St.  Nilus  of  Rossano,  the  builder  of  the  abbey, 
perhaps  in  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  edifice  upon  which 
'  See  Corpus  Inscrip.  Lot.,  vol.  xiv,  n.  2112. 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  267 

the  abbey  actually  stands,  not  certainly  on  the  Colle  delle 
Ginestre.  It  seems  that  in  the  year  1004,  John  XVIII 
being  Pope,  the  holy  hermit  Nilus,  driven  away  from 
Calabria  by  the  invasion  of  the  Saracens,  found  hospi- 
tality at  the  court  of  Gregory  I,  Count  of  Tusculum, 
who  first  granted  him  the  use  of  a  church  of  Sant' 
Agata  in  the  Valle  della  Molara,  and  later  the  posses- 
sion of  the  ruined  villa  at  the  springs  of  the  Acqua  Julia, 
the  walls  of  which  can  be  seen  to  the  present  day  within 
the  fortified  inclosure  of  the  monastery.  These  incidents 
in  the  life  of  its  founder  —  his  meeting  of  the  Emperor 
Otho  III  at  Gaeta,  his  curing  of  the  demoniac  boy  with 
oil  taken  from  the  lamp  of  the  Virgin,  his  praying  for 
the  cessation  of  a  storm,  etc.  — have  been  made  immor- 
tal by  Domenichino  in  the  set  of  frescoes  of  the  chapel 
which  he  painted  in  his  twenty-ninth  year  by  order  of 
Odoardo  Farnese,  on  the  recommendation  of  his  master, 
Annibale  Carracci.  The  one  which  claims  most  atten- 
tion from  our  point  of  view  represents  the  saint  miracu- 
lously sustaining  one  of  the  columns  from  Cicero's  villa 
from  falling  to  the  ground  and  killing  or  maiming  the 
masons.  It  is  said  that  when  Cardinal  Mai  saw  this 
fresco  for  the  first  time  he  improvised  the  following 
distich :  — 

"  Dive !  brevi  lapsam  cohibes  quam  voce  columnam 
Haud  Cicero  immenso  sisteret  eloquio."  ^ 

When  it  was  once  admitted,  against  every  law  of  prob- 
ability, that  the  fluted  pillars  were  relics  of  the  Tuscu- 
lanum,  imagination  added  new  details.  A  marble  disk 
found  in  the  garden  of  the  monastery,  and  now  in  the 
Villa  Pamphili,  was  identified  with   the   rpaTre^dc^o/jo? 

^  "  O  Saint  !  the  column  which  thou  stop'st  in  its  fall,  by  one  word  of 
command,  could  not  have  been  sustained  by  the  immense  eloquence  of 
Cicero  himself." 


268    WANDERINGS  IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

mentioned  by  Cicero  in  a  letter  to  Gallus,  and  a  double- 
headed  bust,  now  also  in  the  Pamphili  collection,  with 
the  Hermathena,  mentioned  in  a  letter  to  Atticus.  False 
inscriptions  were  produced,  among  them  a  ludicrous 
one  in  which  the  names  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Cicero  are 
coupled  against  all  rules  of  chronology  and  common 
sense/ 

Had  those  fanciful  writers  of  history,  Mattel,  Sciom- 
mari,  and  Cozza,  known  or  suspected  that  Grottaferrata 
had  yielded  up  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
finest  statue,  or  what  has  been  considered  until  lately 
the  finest,  in  the  world,  I  have  no  doubt  they  would  have 
credited  Cicero  with  its  possession.  I  refer  to  the  Belve- 
dere Apollo,  discovered,  not  at  Antium,  as  a  popular 
tradition  contends,^  but  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
abbot  of  Grottaferrata  while  that  office  was  held  by 
Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  afterwards  Pope  Julius 
11.^  This  is  by  no  means  the  only  masterpiece  of  which 
the  place  can  boast.  When  the  Emperor  Frederick  II 
withdrew  his  camp  from  this  territory  in  1242,  on  his 
way  to  the  south,  he  took  away  to  Nocera  two  bronze 
statues,  one  of  a  man,  one  of  a  cow,  probably  a  replica  of 
Myron's  masterpiece.  Cardinal  Carlo  Barberini  in  1678 
and  Cardinal  Melchior  de  Polignac  in  1730  discovered 
eleven  statues  of  various  members  of  the  Julii  Aspri 
family;  a  Muse  of  colossal  size,  with  eyeballs  of  pre- 
cious stones  and  eyelashes  of  copper;  a  Faustina;  the 

*  Compare  Cozza,  II  Tuscidano,  p.  65,  who  believes  it  to  have  been 
found  in  the  seventeenth  century  near  the  eleventh  milestone  of  the  Via 
Latina. 

^  "The  tradition  is,  however,  a  late  one.  It  appears  for  the  first  time  in 
Miehele  Mercati's  Metallotheca  (p.  361),  printed  in  1541. 

Compare  Michaelis,  Geschichte  des  Statiienhofes  .  .  .  Belvedere,  p.  10, 
and  Helbig's  Guide,  first  edition,  vol.  i,  n.  160. 


OFTHc  \ 

UNIVERSITY 


OF 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  271 

figure  of  a  slave;  another  of  a  youth  carrying  a  deer  in 
his  arms ;  and  many  pedestals  inscribed  with  eulogies  of 
the  Julians.  The  archaeological  quality  of  the  district  is 
suggested  in  Domenichino's  picture,  here  reproduced,  by 
the  sarcophagus  at  the  right  corner  of  the  foreground, 
which  three  stalwart  masons  are  pushing  away  on  rollers. 
Had  all  these  relics  been  collected  and  preserved  on 
the  spot,  the  Grottaferrata  museum  would  have  ranked 
among  the  richest  in  Europe.  The  modest  attempt  made 
lately  by  the  worthy  Basil ians  to  start  one  makes  us  feel 
more  keenly  the  losses  of  the  past  and  the  rapacity  of 
the  cardinal  abbots,  who  treated  as  personal  property, 
and  carried  away  to  their  own  private  palaces  in  Rome, 
whatever  the  district  placed  under  their  temporary  ju- 
risdiction produced  in  the  way  of  antiques.  And  there 
were  eighty-two  such  abbots  from  the  death  of  St.  Nilus 
in  1005  to  that  of  Cardinal  Ercole  Consalvi  in  1824.' 
The  source  of  the  great  wealth  and  of  the  extensive 
earthly  possessions  of  the  abbey  is  easily  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  abbey  was  the  favorite  halting-place  of 
kings  and  emperors  bent  on  pillaging  and  burning  Rome, 
or  trying  to  save  her  from  pillagers  and  incendiaries. 
Under  its  roof  Robert  the  Norman,  Henry  IV,  Fred- 
erick I,  Frederick  II,  and  the  Duke  of  Calabria  had 
found  shelter  and  good  cheer,  and  had  paid  their  debt 
of  gratitude  in  territorial  grants.  Thus  the  abbey  be- 
came in  time  almost  a  state  within  a  state,  with  bailiffs 
and  justices  of  the  peace  residing  at  Castiglione,  S.  Ce- 
sario,  Castelgandolfo,  Albano,  Aricia,  Velletri,  Ninfa, 
Terracina,  Gaeta,  and  Rufrano.    With  an  income  of  one 

*  This  illustrious  statesman,  the  last  of  the  cardinal  abbots,  died  in  a 
room  on  the  first  floor,  on  January  24,  1824,  in  the  presence  of  the  Pope's 
envoy.  Cardinal  Castiglioni  (afterwards  Pius  VIII),  and  of  the  French  am- 
bassador, the  Duke  of  Laval  de  Montmorency. 


272    WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

hundred  thousand  scudi  a  year  (one  thousand  for  each 
monk)  they  were  able  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  the 
S.  P.  Q.  R.  itself  on  more  than  one  occasion.  The  Bar- 
berini  abbots  have  taken  care  to  put  an  end  to  this 
antimonastic  state  of  things  by  appropriating  every  pos- 
session of  their  proteges,  —  books,  manuscripts,  statues, 
pictures,  precious  vestments,  and  landed  property. 

A  visit  to  Grottaf errata  is  most  attractive.  Even  the 
name  of  the  place  —  the  Iron  Crypt  —  is  mysterious. 
It  appears  for  the  first  time  in  1037.  The  learned  monks 
have  suggested  its  derivation  from  a  railing  inclosing 
a  rustic  chapel  of  the  Madonna,  from  imaginary  bar- 
racks of  the  first  Legion  Ferrata,  from  the  iron-works 
at  the  waterfall  of  the  Acqua  Julia,  or  from  the  iron 
doors  of  the  Iconostasis.  None  of  these  conjectures  is 
satisfactory.  But  on  stepping  over  the  threshold  of 
the  sanctuary  let  us  leave  behind  even  historical  con- 
troversy; peace  and  contentment  are  the  only  feelings 
which  must  be  allowed  to  move  our  souls  within  these 
ancient  cloisters.  The  Greek  words  of  welcome  en- 
graved over  the  door  of  the  church  express  the  same 
sentiment:  **0  thou  who  enterest  the  house  of  God, 
leave  behind  thee  all  solicitous  cares,  so  that  thou  mayst 
face  thy  Judge  in  peace!"  How  soothing  these  words 
must  have  sounded  to  many  seeking  admittance  under 
St.  Nilus's  roof,  after  having  shaken  off  the  dust  of  the 
wicked  city:  **0  thou  who  comest  to  this  sanctuary, 
leave  behind  thee  all  solicitous  cares!"  It  is  true  that 
modern  swift  means  of  locomotion  have  disturbed  the 
solitude  of  which  the  villa-builders  and  the  cenobites 
were  so  jealous;  but  by  a  mercy  of  fate  the  Colle  delle 
Ginestre  and  the  gardens  of  the  abbey  are  still  free  from 
any  annoying   contact.    And    if,   while  sitting  on  the 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO  273 

remains  of  Cicero's  home,  or  under  the  shade  of  the 
grove  planted  by  St.  Nilus,  the  faint  echo  of  the  engi- 
neer's whistle  reaches  our  ear,  we  feel  tempted  to  repeat 
in  their  blunt  selfishness  the  verses  of  the  poet:  — 

"  Suave,  mari  magno  turbantibus  sequora  ventis, 
E  terra  magnum  alterius  spectare  laborem  ! "  ^ 

The  best  evidence  of  the  influence  that  these  charming 
retreats  exercise  on  superior  minds  is  to  be  found  in 
Domenichino's  experience.  His  home  life  was  a  hell, 
and  yet,  once  within  the  shelter  of  the  abbey,  he  could 
forget  his  sorrows  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  paint  a  whole 
set  of  masterpieces,  showing  a  perfect  balance  of  mind. 
Poor  Domenichino !  He  was  fated  to  marry,  about  1620, 
a  woman  from  Bologna,  Marsabilia  by  name,  suflficiently 
good-looking,  but  of  a  fearsome  temper  and  of  a  queer 
turn  of  mind.  The  most  odious  of  her  notions  was  that 
of  denying  a  proper  amount  of  food  to  her  own  children, 
in  the  hope  of  bringing  them  up  gentle  and  delicate. 
Two  young  sons  had  already  died  from  such  inhuman 
treatment,  when  Domenichino,  for  once  asserting  his 
authority,  took  the  third  child  under  his  own  care,  — 
a  dear  girl,  who  outlived  him  and  gave  him  great  com- 
fort in  his  misfortunes.  These  came  to  a  climax  in  1649, 
while  he  was  painting  the  chapel  of  the  Spanish  viceroy 
in  Naples,  with  the  advent  of  two  brothers  of  Marsabilia 
('*maligni,  insolentissimi,  e  facinorosi"),  who  succeeded 
in  driving  him  to  a  premature  grave,  and  in  getting  the 
lion's  share  of  the  inheritance,  valued  at  twenty  thou- 
sand scudi. 

Many  other  masterpieces  besides  Domenichino's 
owe  their  existence  to  the  invigorating   influences  of  a 

'  "  It  is  sweet,  when  on  the  great  sea  the  winds  trouble  its  waters,  to 
behold  from  land  another's  deep  distress."  (Munro.) 


274    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMx\N   CAMPAGNA 

Tusculan  villa.  Nowhere  have  men  of  letters  found 
themselves  in  a  more  industrious  mood;  nowhere  have 
they  been  able  to  dismiss  more  effectually  from  their 
minds  the  worries  of  professional  and  the  intrigues  of 
political  life.  So  much  did  the  ancients  value  the  sooth- 
ing effects  of  rustic  life  —  Nature's  most  active  and  mer- 
ciful drug  —  that  the  verb  secedere  was  used  with  the 
double  meaning  of  retiring  into  the  country  and  of  find- 
ing rest  in  a  peaceful  death.  An  inscription  which  I 
copied  at  Nettuno  many  years  ago  said,  "L.  Fabius 
Octavianus  in  agellulis  meis  secessV  ^  Another,  en- 
graved on  a  sarcophagus  formerly  in  the  church  of  the 
Aracoeli,  in  'which  father,  mother,  and  daughter  had 
been  entombed,  expresses  the  same  feeling:  ''Secus  in 
sarcofago  [sic]  in  hortulis  nostris  secessimus !''  This 
bringing  into  comparison  the  two  restful  withdrawals, 
the  temporary  and  the  eternal,  the  earthly  and  the 
elysian,  gives  a  delicate  touch  of  pathos  to  both  epitaphs. 
•  This  happy  state  of  things  has  not  undergone  serious 
change  with  the  lapse  of  time.  Each  monastery,  each 
villa,  each  cottage  of  the  region,  seems  to  be  connected 
with  the  production  of  some  literary  or  artistic  work, 
from  Cardinal  Bessarion,  the  founder  of  the  Greek 
Renaissance  studies  in  the  Grottaferrata  Abbey,  to 
Cardinal  Wiseman,  who  wrote  "Fabiola"  under  the 
pergola  of  the  English  College  at  Monteporzio;  from 
Annibale  Caro,  who  translated  the  ^Eneid  in  the  grove 
of  the  villa  of  Lucullus,  to  Biondi  and  Canina,  who 
gathered  materials  for  their  illustrations  of  Tusculum 
while  residing  at  La  Ruffinella. 

Above  the  gate  of  the  cottage  now  inclosed  in  the 
Villa   Piccolomini-Lancellotti,  where  Cardinal  Cesare 

*  "  I,  Lucius  Fabius  Octavianus,  have  retired  into  this  little  possession 
of  mine." 


THE   LAND   OF   CICERO 


275 


Baronio  spent  forty  seasons  in  writing  the  **  Annali  della 
Chiesa,"  the  following  inscription  has  been  engraved, 
in  which  the  verb  secedere  is  again  most  happily  used: 


The  gateway  of  the  Grottaferrata  Abbey  fortified  by  Cardinal  Giuliano 
della  Rovere  about  1485 


CAESAR       CARD.        BARONIVS ANNALIBVS       ECCLESIAE 

PERTEXENDIS HIC    SECEDERE    SOLITVS LOCVM   MO- 

NVMENTO  DiGNVM  FECIT.  Were  similar  inscriptions  to 
be  aflfixed  to  every  house  or  garden  gate  in  the  territory 
of  Frascati  or  Grottaferrata  where  illustrious  men  have 


276   WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

resided  during  the  last  four  centuries,  the  whole  country- 
side would  become  a  Pantheon.  1  shall  mention  only 
two  names  as  representatives  of  their  respective  social 
state,  those  of  Cardinal  Bessarion  among  the  early 
humanists,  and  Annibale  Caro  among  the  poets  of  the 
golden  age. 

Johannes  Bessarion  of  Trebizond,  Bishop  of  Nicsea, 
came  to  Italy  in  1438  as  theological  adviser  of  the  phan- 
tom-emperor Constantine  Palseologue,  at  the  council 
convened  at  Ferrara  by  Pope  Eugene  IV  for  the  reunion 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches.  As  a  supporter  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  as  a  newly  elected  member  of  the 
Sacred  College,  he  found  himself  involved  at  once  in 
every  clerico-political  intrigue  of  that  troublesome  period, 
such  as  the  conspiracy  of  Stefano  Porcari,  the  conflict 
with  Frederick  III,  and  the  schism  of  Basle.  At  the  con- 
clave of  1455,  following  the  death  of  the  great  Nicho- 
las V,  he  was  on  the  point  of  receiving  a  majority  of  the 
votes,  when  a  ludicrous  allusion  by  Cardinal  Alain  of 
Brittany  to  his  long,  flowing  beard,  typical  of  Eastern 
prelates,  turned  the  election  in  favor  of  the  Spaniard 
Callixtus  III.  His  name  is  connected  with  two  gems  of 
art, — the  shrine  of  St.  Andrew  the  Apostle,  on  the  Fla- 
minian  road,  and  the  presbyterial  house  adjoining  the 
church  of  S.  Cesario  on  the  Via  Appia. 

According  to  a  popular  legend,  Andrew  the  Apostle 
having  been  crucified  at  Patras,  his  head  was  severed 
from  the  body  and  left  at  the  place  of  execution,  while 
the  body,  after  many  wanderings,  found  a  place  of  rest 
at  Amalfi.  When  the  Turks  invaded  Morea  in  1459, 
and  Thomas,  the  last  of  the  Palseologues,  sought  safety 
in  flight,  the  head,  offered  to  Pope  Pius  II,  was  re- 
moved to  the  fortress  of  Narni  and  intrusted  to  the  care 
of  Bessarion.    Of  its  transfer  to  Rome  in  April,  1462,  of 


THE  SHRINE  ON  THE  FLAMINIAN  ROAD 

Marking  the  spot  at  which  the  head  of  St.  Andrew  was  received  by  Pope 

Pius  II  from  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Bessarion 


THE  LAND   OF   CICERO  279 

the  marvellous  mise-en-scene  for  its  triumphal  reception 
arranged  by  the  humanist  Pope,  and  of  the  part  played 
in  it  by  Bessarion,  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  after  the 
brilliant  account  given  by  Gregorovius  in  volume  vii  of 
his  '*  Geschichte."  A  memorial  of  this  event  is  to  be  found 
in  a  shrine  still  standing  on  the  right  of  the  Flaminian 
road,  not  far  from  the  Milvian  bridge.  It  has  the  shape 
of  a  canopy  supported  by  four  alabaster  columns,  shel- 
tering the  statue  of  the  saint,  a  work  of  Varrone  and 
Nicolao  of  Florence,  mentioned  by  Vasari  in  his  life  of 
Antonio  Filarete.  It  marks  the  exact  spot  where  the 
skull  was  handed  to  the  Pope  by  Bessarion  and  where 
the  speech  was  delivered  which  Gregorovius  compares, 
not  without  reason,  to  the  one  uttered  by  Cola  di  Rienzo. 
The  presbyterial  house  attached  to  the  church  of  S. 
Cesario  is  a  graceful  building  of  the  Renaissance,  un- 
known not  only  to  guidebooks  but  to  artists  as  well  as 
to  historians  of  Rome. 

Bessarion  kept  open  court  in  his  palace  at  SS.  Apos- 
toli  (now  an  army  and  navy  club),  which  became  a 
seminary  of  classic  studies  for  the  leaders  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Andronicus  Callixtus,  Constantine  Lascaris, 
Gaza,  Biondo,  Cardinal  Platina,  Cardinal  Cusa,  Peuer- 
bach,  the  father  of  modern  astronomy,  and  Johan  Re- 
giomontanus,  the  translator  of  the  "Almagest,"  were 
among  the  favorite  guests.  Bessarion  himself  was  a  bib- 
liomaniac, and  many  of  the  Greek  manuscripts  on  the 
possession  of  which  we  pride  ourselves  were  purchased 
by  him  from  Greek  refugees. 

The  Grottaferrata  library  at  that  time  had  suffered 
great  losses  from  ignorance  and  neglect.  Ambrogio  Tra- 
versari,  who  examined  its  contents  in  1432,  found  many 
volumes  eaten  by  vermin  or  spoiled  by  mould.  Better 
days,  however,  came  with  the  appointment  of  Bessarion 


280    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

to  the  *'commandership"  of  the  abbey,  made  by  Pius  II 
on  August  28,  1462.  The  subsequent  ten  years  of  his 
tenure  of  office  are  marked  with  letters  of  gold  in  the 
chronicles  of  the  monastery.  He  raised  the  moral  stand- 
ard of  his  fellow  monks,  rebuilt  their  church,  and  took 
such  good  care  of  the  library  that  even  to-day,  after 
four  and  a  half  centuries  of  further  neglect,  pleasant 
surprises  await  the  bibliophiles;  witness  the  discovery 
made  by  Cozza  in  July,  1875,  of  a  precious  codex  of 
Strabo.  The  report  of  the  cardinal's  reforms  must  have 
reached  Pius  II,  who  visited  Grottaferrata  on  May  30, 
1463,  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  improved  state  of 
affairs.  In  the  diary  of  the  journey  written  by  his  mas- 
ter of  ceremonies,  the  place  is  described  as  standing 
above  Cicero's  villa,  between  the  villas  of  Lucullus  and 
Marius.  *'IIere  dwell  Greek  monks  with  flowing  beards 
who  on  the  eve  of  Epiphany  bless  the  water  of  the  basin 
placed  in  the  vestibule  of  the  church,  where  it  is  kept  for 
a  whole  year  (!)  to  be  drunk,  drop  by  drop,  by  people 
suffering  from  the  ague." 

Bessarion  died  at  Ravenna  on  the  18th  of  November, 
1472,  having  bequeathed  his  library  of  six  hundred  man- 
uscript volumes  to  the  republic  of  Venice.  It  was  valued 
at  thirty  thousand  florins.  Three  inscriptions  keep  his 
name  before  us, — the  one  which  he  composed  for  his  own 
grave;  a  second  put  up  by  him  at  S.  Marcello  in  memory 
of  a  dear  friend.  Cardinal  Juan  Carvajal;  and  a  third 
with  an  account  of  his  career,  put  up  in  1682  by  Gian 
Battista  Beltrami,  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Rome, 
on  the  wall  of  the  corridor  connecting  the  church  of  SS. 
Apostoli  with  the  palace  once  inhabited  by  Bessarion 
himself.  His  ashes  must  have  been  profaned  or  thrown 
into  the  common  charnel-house  at  the  time  the  church 
underwent  its  appalling  transformation  under  Clement 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  281 

XI,  with  the  complicity  of  his  architect,  Carlo  Fontana. 
"No  pen  could  describe,"  I  quote  the  expression  of  Vin- 
cenzo  Forcella,^  '*the  acts  of  vandalism  perpetrated  on 
this  occasion;  they  reduce  almost  to  insignificance  the 
fate  suffered  for  a  similar  reason  by  the  churches  of  La 
Minerva,  S.  Marcello,  S.  Nicolao  in  Carcere,  and  S. 
Francesco  a  Ripa."  Bessarion  had  left  the  most  minute 
directions  for  his  burial  in  the  right-hand  corner  of  the 
chapel  of  SS.  Michael  and  Euphemia.  No  vestiges  are 
left  either  of  the  chapel  or  of  the  grave,  save  the  original 
epitaph  in  Greek  and  Latin  dictated  by  the  cardinal 
himself.  The  best  tribute  of  honor  to  his  memory  is  to 
be  found  in  Father  Rocchi's  "La  Badia  di  Grottaf er- 
rata";^ he  says  that  Bessarion  was  the  last  of  the  good 
commendatarii.  The  fourteen  successors,  from  Giuli- 
ano  della  Rovere  to  Carlo  Rezzonico,  mostly  nephews  of 
popes,^  turned  the  revenues  of  the  abbey  to  their  private 
advantage,  and,  in  the  matter  of  antiquities  and  works 
of  art,  laid  hands  on  every  object  which  could  be  con- 
veniently removed  to  their  private  galleries  in  Rome. 

The  first  event  in  the  chronicle  of  the  new  life  and  the 
new  period  of  prosperity  of  these  hills  is  the  rebuilding  of 
Frascati,  undertaken  by  Paul  III  in  1538  and  completed 
in  1546,  under  the  direction  of  his  factotum,  Meleghino, 
and  from  the  plan  of  Bartolomeo  Baronino.*  Included 

^  Inscrizioni  delle  chiese  di  Roma,  vol.  ii,  p.  219. 

»  Rome,  1904,  p.  37. 

'  Giuliano,  nephew  of  Sixtus  IV;  Innocenzo  del  Monte,  of  Julius  III; 
Alexander  Farnese,  of  Paul  III;  Francesco  Barberini,  of  Urban  VIII; 
Giannantonio  Guadagni,  of  Clement  XII;  Carlo  Rezzonico,  of  Clement 
XIII,  etc. 

*  Concerning  these  two  coadjutors  of  Pope  Farnese  in  his  works  of  em- 
bellishment and  sanitation  of  Rome  and  Frascati,  see  The  Golden  Days  of 
the  Renaissance,  pp.  165,  172. 


282    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 


Portrait  of  Cardinal  Bessarion  in  the  cloister  of  SS.  Apostoli 

in  the  scheme  of  the  works  were  the  construction  of  a 
castle  where  the  *'governatore  della  citta  di  Tusculano" 
could  reside  in  ordinary  times,  and  the  Popes  on  the 
occasion  of  their  summer  visits ;  the  construction  of  the 
city  walls;  the  opening  of  two  public  squares  and  of  a 
network  of  straight  and  well-drained  streets  crossing  one 
another  at  right  angles.    If  we  remember  that  the  whole 


THE   LAND  OF   CICERO  283 

city  of  Frascati  is  built  over  the  remains  of  an  ancient 
villa  of  immense  size,  we  cannot  wonder  at  the  archaeo- 
logical results  of  Paul  Ill's  undertaking.  Aldovrandi 
saw  in  the  Farnese  collection  at  Rome  '*  a  most  beautiful 
trophy  with  heads  of  gorgons,  harpies,  and  lions;  another 
group  of  military  emblems  in  porphyry;  a  candelabrum 
standing  on  a  triangular  base  with  groups  of  Winged 
Victories  in  bold  relief;  .  .  .  and  all  these  marbles 
were  found  at  Frascati. "  The  anonymous  author  of  the 
manuscript  volume  in  the  Bishop's  library  marked  14, 1, 
11,  speaks  also  of  "alcune  statue  di  molta  considera- 
tione"  discovered  under  the  Cherubini  house,  within  the 
same  belt  of  classic  ruins.  What  were  these  ruins,  and 
to  whom  among  the  classic  summer  residents  of  their 
district  can  we  ascribe  their  ownership.^  The  answer 
can  be  given  without  fear  of  mistake  since  the  recent 
studies  of  Grossi-Gondi.  Frascati  represents  the  central 
palace  and  the  headquarters  of  the  imperial  estate,  many 
thousand  acres  in  extent,  which  had  been  formed  in  the 
first  two  centuries  after  Christ  by  joining  in  one  pro- 
perty several  villas  originally  belonging  to  the  Passienii, 
the  Sulpicii,  the  Quintilii,  the  Cocceii,  and  the  Emperor 
Tiberius.  It  extended  eastward  from  the  present  town 
to  the  Barco  Borghese  and  northward  to  the  region  of 
Cocceiano,  Prataporcia,  and  Campitelli.  The  palace 
formed  a  parallelogram  one  thousand  feet  long  and 
eight  hundred  wide,  divided  into  two  platforms,  the 
higher  of  which  is  called  in  mediaeval  documents  Viva- 
rium, the  lower  Balnearia,  Bagnara,  the  first  from  its 
water-reservoirs,  the  second  from  its  vestiges  of  baths. 

Passienus  Crispus,  the  founder  of  the  estate,  twice 
consul,  owner  of  a  fortune  valued  at  two  hundred  mil- 
lions of  sesterces,  or  eight  million  dollars,  was  a  great 
lover  of  nature,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  mention  in 


284    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

chapter  III,  p.  146.  Unfortunately  he  loved  also  Agrip- 
pina  the  younger,  and  this  was  the  cause  of  his  downfall. 
Agrippina  was  an  unwise  mother-in-law.  She  became 
so  obnoxious  to  Poppsea,  whose  influence  over  Nero 
increased  every  day,  and  to  Nero  himself,  who  sided 
with  his  young  wife,  that  an  estrangement  took  place. 
Nero  would  avoid  her  presence  and  deny  speech  to  her ; 
and  Agrippina  would  show  her  resentment  by  leaving  the 
court  and  brooding  over  her  lost  power,  sometimes  in  her 
Vatican  gardens,  sometimes  at  Tusculum  in  the  villa  of 
Passienus,  to  whom  the  dowager  Empress  had  bound 


A  view  of  the  Villa  Quintiliorum,  now  Mondragone 

herself  by  a  morganatic  marriage,  the  second  in  her 
adventurous  career.  The  wealth  of  Passienus  was  the 
cause  of  his  death ;  he  bequeathed  it  to  his  august  wife, 
and  she  secured  possession  of  it  without  waiting  for 
the  natural  course  of  events,  by  removing  the  obstacle 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  285 

which  stood  in  her  way.  For  this  we  have  the  evidence 
of  Suetonius,  "he  was  done  to  death  by  the  treachery  of 
Agrippina,  whom  he  had  made  heiress  to  his  immense 
estate. "  The  villa,  therefore,  became  Agrippina's  about 
48  A.  D.  Six  years  later,  by  the  death  of  Claudius,  her 
third  husband,  the  villa  and  the  two  hundred  millions 
became  the  property  of  Nero.  Written  evidence  of  these 
tragic  events  and  of  these  transmissions  of  property  was 
found  at  Frascati  in  1854,  1876,  and  1891.  The  name 
of  the  meddlesome  mother-in-law  has  been  read  on  the 
water-pipe  supplying  the  bath,^  and  that  of  her  son  on 
another  conduit  discovered  in  1891  in  about  the  same 
place  ;^  while  a  memorial  of  the  residence  of  her  third 
husband  at  the  villa  is  to  be  found  in  the  gravestone  of 
the  freedwoman  Claudia  Primigenia,  discovered  under 
the  Senni  palace  at  the  Porta  Romana  in  1860. 

To  this  original  nucleus  several  adjoining  properties 
were  added  from  time  to  time,  such  as  the  one  which 
Agrippina  and  Nero  had  jointly  inherited  from  Tiberius, 
the  imposing  remains  of  which  are  seen  from  the  rail- 
way carriage,  on  the  left  of  the  last  curve  before  reaching 
Frascati.  The  place  is  now  called  Cocciano.  Here  a 
water-pipe  was  found  in  1892  inscribed  Tiberii  CcBsaris 
et  lulice  Augustce.  Here  Tiberius  lingered  the  last  days 
of  his  life,  leaving  Cocciano  on  his  journey  to  Capri  only 
to  die  at  Cape  Misenum.  Here  he  was  cared  for  by 
Antonia  the  elder,  mother  of  Germanicus,  the  same 
matron  who  had  given  him  the  first  warning  about  the 
plot  of  Sejanus.  Statues  of  both  were  discovered  near 
the  theatre  of  Tusculum  in  the  excavations  of  1839  by 
the  Queen  of  Sardinia.  What  became  of  this  imperial 
property  in  subsequent  times  is  not  known.    The  fact 

^  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.,  vol.  xiv,  n.  2659. 
^  Bull.  arch,  com.,  vol.  xxii,  a.  1904,  p.  122. 


286    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

that  a  "massa  Tusculana"  is  not  mentioned  in  the  list 
of  territories  granted  by  Constantine  to  the  See  of  Rome 
leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  domain  must  have  been 
sold  in  plots  to  private  owners  between  the  time  of 
Severus  (when  the  villa  is  mentioned  for  the  last  time) 
and  the  end  of  the  third  century,  when  the  great  reli- 
gious and  political  evolution  of  the  Empire  took  place, 
and  the  church  gradually  came  into  possession  of  the 
imperial  lands. 

The  rebuilding  of  Frascati  by  Pope  Paul  III  in  1538- 
46  secured  once  more  for  the  Tusculan  hills  the  place 
of  honor  among  the  summer  residences  of  the  prelates 
and  noblemen  of  the  Curia,  each  of  them  taking  care  to 
choose  the  remains  of  an  ancient  villa  for  the  site  of  his 
new  one,  so  as  to  avoid  the  cost  of  building  fresh  foun- 
dations. This  superposition  of  the  sixteenth-century 
villas  on  the  classic  ones  is  the  fundamental  point  in 
the  study  of  the  topography  of  this  attractive  district.  If 
we  spread  before  our  eyes  the  panoramic  view  of  the 
Frascati  country-seats,  as  they  appeared  at  the  time  of 
Paul  V,  designed  and  engraved  by  Matthew  Greuter  in 
1620,  and  substitute  in  imagination  for  the  indifferent 
architecture  of  the  modern  palaces  the  classic  outline  of 
their  predecessors,  and  for  their  gray,  sombre  color  the 
harmonious  polychromy  of  a  Pompeian  house,  we  may 
obtain  a  satisfactory  impression  of  the  old  aspect  of  the 
hillside. 

The  pioneer  of  villa-builders  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  Alessandro  Rufini,  Bishop  of 
Melfi,  a  man  of  archaeological  tastes  and  an  ardent  col- 
lector of  every  inscription,  or  altar,  or  urn  which  bore  the 
name  of  Rufinus  or  Rufina.  As  usual  with  the  collectors 
of  that  period,  whose  means  were  not  equal  to  their  am- 
bition, the  bishop  found  himself  frequently  in  monetary 


A  FISH  POND  IN  THE  TUSCULAN  VI U 


)1     BISHOP  RUFINI  (NOW  FALCONIERI) 


I 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  287 

straits  and  obliged  to  part  with  some  of  his  treasures. 
Thus,  in  the  year  1562,  when  he  had  become  sponsor 
for  the  safe  rebuilding  of  the  Ponte  di  Santa  Maria,  and 
the  contractors  had  failed  to  accomplish  it,  he  met  his 
liabilities  to  the  city  magistrates  by  paying  640  scudi 
outright  and  the  balance  of  1360  scudi  in  works  of  art, 
the  two  colossal  statues  of  Julius  Caesar  and  an  admiral 
which  are  to  be  seen  on  either  side  of  the  entrance  door 
to  the  Conservatori  Palace.  The  Villa  Rufina  at  Fras- 
cati  is  better  known  under  the  name  of  Falconieri,  from 
the  family  which  rebuilt  and  enlarged  it  at  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century  after  the  designs  of  Borromini. 
Some  years  ago  it  had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  certain  Trappist  monks,  who  tried  to  turn  its 
best  attractions  into  money,  cutting  down  even  its  finest 
trees.  The  villa  has  now  found  a  kind  and  generous 
protector  in  Emperor  William  of  Germany,  to  whom 
the  property  has  been  offered  as  a  gift  by  a  loyal  subject, 
Herr  Mendelssohn. 

The  example  set  by  Bishop  Rufini  was  followed  by 
Cardinal  Ranuccio  Farnese,  the  builder  of  the  Villa  An- 
gelina-Borghese  (1562);  by  Annibale  Caro,  the  builder 
of  the  Caravilla  (1563);  by  Cardinal  Marco  Sitico  Al- 
temps,  the  builder  of  Mondragone  (1572);  by  Guido 
Ferrerio,  Cardinal  of  Vercelli,  the  restorer  of  the  Ruffi- 
nella  (1578) ;  by  Cardinal  Ottavio  Acquaviva,  the  builder 
of  the  Villa  Montalto  (1590);  by  Clement  VIII  and 
Pietro  Aldobrandini,  the  builder  of  the  Villa  Belvedere 
(1592-1604);  by  Cardinal  Pompeo  Arrigoni,  the  builder 
of  the  Villa  Muti  (1596),  and  by  Giacomo  Boncompagni, 
nephew  of  Gregory  XIII,  the  builder  of  the  Villa  Sora. 

Annibale  Caro,  a  most  genial  master  of  the  Italian 
language,  whose  speech  is  like  music,  whose  words  are 


288    WANDERINGS   IN  THE   ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

like  jewels,  the  translator  of  the  iEneid  and  of  the  idyl  of 
Longus  the  Sophist,  whose  name  has  already  been  men- 
tioned in  this  volume  (p.  193)  in  connection  with  the 
laying  out  of  the  Villa  Catena,  purchased  in  1563  part 
of  the  villa  of  Lucullus  near  the  gate  of  the  present  Villa 
Conti-Torlonia.  This  acquisition  he  made  partly  from 
a  desire  to  please  his  protector,  Cardinal  Ranuccio  Far- 
nese,  a  great  lover  of  Frascati,  partly  with  a  view  to 
leaving  behind  the  worries  of  city  life  and  the  intrigues 
of  the  Curia.  It  was  altogether  a  modest  place,  but  so 
full  of  peace  and  freedom  from  the  *' prof anum  vulgus" 
that  the  poet  gave  it  the  name  of  Cara villa.  Neither 
Cardinal  Ranuccio,  however,  nor  Caro  long  enjoyed 
their  villas,  —  one  the  Angelina,  the  other  the  Cara- 
villa,  —  as  the  first  died  at  Parma  in  1565,  and  the  sec- 
ond at  Rome  in  the  following  year.  How  different  the 
modest  garden  of  the  poet  must  have  looked  from  the 
country-seat  of  Lucullus,  among  the  ruins  of  which  it 
nestled.  We  know  that  the  impression  created  by  the 
latter  on  the  visitor  was  that  of  an  offensive  display  of 
wealth  rather  than  of  taste;  and  the  vastness  of  its  build- 
ings gave  rise  to  the  criticism  that  there  was  more  space 
for  sweeping  than  for  gardening  in  the  Lucullean  estate. 
The  number  and  value  of  the  works  of  art,  however,  and 
the  contents  of  the  library  redeemed  such  defects  in  the 
eye  of  the  connoisseur.  Moreover,  Lucullus  was  a  charm- 
ing host,  endowed  with  the  gift  of  repartee.  Having 
once  been  asked  by  Pompey  why  he  had  incurred  so 
great  an  expense  for  a  villa  facing  the  north  and  there- 
fore available  only  in  summer,  "Do  you  take  me,"  he 
answered,  "for  a  more  stupid  being  than  the  stork,  that 
I  should  not  know  how  and  when  to  change  residence 
with  the  change  of  the  seasons  ?'' 

The  translator  of  the  iEneid  was  a  successful  explorer 


-,-•   ■"- .-^  ''^■ 


A  SHADY  WALK  IN  THE  LUCULLEAN  GARDENS 
(VILLA  CONTI-TORLONIA) 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  291 

of  antiquities.  A  contemporary  artist,  Flaminio  Vacca, 
relates  in  his  "Memoirs"  how  **a  block  of  masonry 
that  stood  in  the  farmer's  way  having  been  levelled  to 
the  ground  in  the  vineyard  of  Annibale  Caro  outside  the 
Porta  San  Giovanni,  the  portrait  heads  of  the  twelve 
Caesars  were  found  imbedded  in  the  masonry,  together 
with  a  sarcophagus  on  the  front  of  which  were  sculp- 
tured the  Labors  of  Hercules,  and  with  many  pieces  of 
statuary  of  Greek  workmanship.  I  do  not  remember 
what  was  done  with  the  heads  and  busts ;  the  sarcopha- 
gus, however,  was  purchased  by  Monsignor  Visconti, 
and  removed  to  Nuvolara,  an  estate  he  owned  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Po."  Annibale  mentions  other  finds 
at  Frascati  in  a  letter  dated  September  14,  1565.  "My 
ambition  at  present  is  to  escape  from  Rome  as  often  as 
I  can,  and  to  live  in  retirement  in  a  small  cottage  I  am 
constructing  at  Frascati,  on  a  site  once  belonging  to 
Lucullus,  as  I  have  been  able  to  make  sure  from  monu- 
ments upon  which  his  name  is  engraved."  He  refers 
to  the  discovery,  among  the  ruins  of  the  old  palace,  of 
a  water-pipe  inscribed  with  the  name  L.  lvcvl  .  .  . 
This  was  not  the  only  treasure  gathered  from  the  ruins. 
In  the  month  of  February,  1575,  the  poet's  heir,  Ottavio, 
offered  for  sale  to  the  city  council  a  collection  of  statues, 
valde  pulcherrimoB,  which  had  evidently  been  unearthed 
at  Frascati.  The  Caravilla  was  embodied  at  a  later 
period  in  the  beautiful  villa  which  passed  through  the 
hands  of  Cardinal  Tolomeo  Gallio,  Bishop  of  Como; 
of  the  reckless  nephew  of  Paul  V,  Cardinal  Scipione 
Borghese;  of  the  Altemps,  Ludovisi,  Conti,  and  Sforza- 
Cesarini;  and  is  now  nobly  taken  care  of  by  Duke 
Leopoldo  Torlonia.  Traces  of  the  reticulated  walls  of 
the  house,  which  once  echoed  with  the  voices  of  the 
conqueror  of  Bithynia,  of  Cato  and  Cicero,  can  be  seen 


292    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

level  with  the  ground  on  either  side  of  the  avenue,  a  view 
of  which  is  given  on  p.  151. 

Lucullus  was  buried  in  his  own  estate,  but  the  shape- 
less mass  of  concrete  shown  to  tourists  as  his  grave,  near 
the  gate  of  the  Villa  Piccolomini-Lancellotti  (from  which 
the  municipality  of  Frascati  has  named  the  adjoining 
street,  to  give  it  a  dash  of  archaeological  interest),  has  no 
right  to  bear  the  name.  Lucullus  was  laid  to  rest  by  his 
brother  Licinius  in  a  noble  mausoleum  on  the  Via  Tus- 
culana,  at  the  place  called  Torrone  di  Micara,  one  mile 
due  west  of  Frascati;  built  in  the  shape  of  a  tumulus,  in 
the  style  prevailing  towards  the  Augustan  age.  Larger 
and  more  imposing  than  the  contemporary  mausolea  of 
Lucilia  Polla  on  the  Via  Salaria,  of  Passienus  Crispus  in 
the  Vigna  Cavalieri  on  the  Aventine,  and  of  an  unknown 
personage  in  the  Vigna  della  Certosa  on  the  Via  Labi- 
cana,  the  Torrone  di  Micara  measures  100  feet  in  diam- 
eter and  29  in  height  to  the  top  of  the  cornice.  The  cone 
of  earth  once  covered  with  evergreens  has  disappeared, 
and  in  its  place  we  see,  as  at  Metella's  grave,  vestiges 
of  mediaeval  fortifications,  and  a  battlemented  parapet, 
which  Nibby  assigns  to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. The  three  sepulchral  chambers  where  the  ashes  of 
the  Licinii  were  formerly  kept  are  now  used  as  an  oil 
cellar.  The  Torrone  can  be  reached  from  Frascati  in 
less  than  an  hour,  following  the  Strada  Romana  as 
far  as  the  Villa  Borsari  and  the  lane  to  the  left  to  Colle 
Papa. 

The  Villa  Liciniorum  must  have  remained  in  the 
possession  of  the  family  for  many  years,  because  a  grave- 
stone of  the  second  century  after  Christ,  bearing  the 
name  of  two  freedmen  Licinii,  has  been  found  near 
the  western  boundary  of  the  estate  in  the  direction  of 
the  Villa  Muti. 


THE   LAND  OF   CICERO 


293 


I  have  just  mentioned,  among  the  illustrious  men  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  who  successively 
owned  the  site  of  the  villa,  Cardinal  Scipione  Borghese, 
the  most  reckless  and  spendthrift  prelate  of  his  age. 
Born  in  1576,  of  the  sister  of  the  future  Pope  Paul  V 
and  of  Prospero  Caffarelli,  cardinal  at  twenty-nine,  two 
months  after  his  uncle  had  taken  possession  of  St.  Peter's 


The  Mausoleum  of  LucuUus,  now  called  the  Torrone  di  Micara 

chair,  the  sudden  possession  of  unlimited  wealth  from 
bishoprics,  abbacies,  and  sinecures  must  have  hurried 
him  into  the  path  of  extravagance.  When  we  come  to 
think  that  for  the  sake  of  a  single  statue,  and  a  very 
immodest  one,^  he  undertook  to  rebuild  at  his  own  cost 
the  fa9ade  of  Santa  Maria  della  Vittoria,  while  he  was 
already  engaged  in  such  expensive  undertakings  as  the 
Villa  Pinciana-Borghese,  the  churches  of  S.  Francesca 
Romana  and  S.  Gregorio  al  Celio,  the  Caffarelli  chapel 
at  La  Minerva,  and  the  palazzo  which  still  bears  his 

^  The  Borghese  Hermaphrodite,  now  in  the  Louvre. 


294    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

name,  what  he  was  able  to  accomplish  at  Frascati 
seems  almost  insignificant.  He  began  by  purchasing  the 
Villa  Angelina  from  the  heirs  of  Ranuccio  Farnese,  the 
Mondragone  from  Giovannangelo  Altemps,  the  Cara- 
villa  (Conti),  from  the  heirs  of  Tolomeo  Gallio,  the 
Mondragoncino  from  Ferdinando  Taverna  (the  terrible 
prosecutor  of  Beatrice  Cenci),  and  the  Montalto  from 
Ottavio  Acquaviva,  without  his  greed  or  his  changing 
moods  being  satisfied.  The  Acquaviva  cost  him  58,600 
scudi,  the  Taverna  28,000,  the  Mondragone  300,000,  be- 
sides the  outlay  of  19,913  scudi  for  the  water-works  of  the 
Caravilla  alone.  To  the  purchase-money  we  must  add 
the  value  of  the  thousand  works  of  art,  classic  or  contem- 
porary, with  which  his  palaces  and  gardens  were  filled. 
Guidebooks  of  the  eighteenth  century  describe  as  still 
extant  in  his  private  apartment  at  Mondragone  pictures 
by  Raphael,  Zuccari,  Domenichino,  Caraffa,  Guido,  Mi- 
chelangelo, Diirer,  Cav.  d'  Arpino,  and  Lanfranco. 

One  more  interesting  figure  of  a  cardinal  I  shall  in- 
troduce to  the  reader  before  bringing  this  chapter  to 
a  close,  that  of  the  last  of  the  villa-builders  at  Fras- 
cati. In  Domenico  Passionei  —  born  at  Fossombrone  in 
1682,  archseologist,  diplomatist,  linguist,  and  man  of 
the  world.  Archbishop  of  Ephesus,  Papal  Nuncio  to  the 
Low  Countries,  Baden,  Switzerland,  and  Vienna  (where 
he  brought  into  the  fold  of  the  church  the  Prince  of 
Wurtemberg  and  Ekkart  the  historian),  founder  of  the 
church  of  St.  Edwige  in  Berlin,  official  orator  at  the 
funeral  of  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  a  cardinal  in  1738  — 
we  find  embodied  the  most  perfect  type  of  the  gentle- 
manly prelate  of  the  eighteenth  century.  When,  tired 
of  court  life,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
literary  and  artistic  treasures  collected  in  Rome  and 


H 
O 

H 

en 

W 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


OF 


THE  LAND   OF  CICERO  297 

abroad,  he  could  not  find  a  happier  retreat  than  the 
one  offered  by  the  Tusculan  hills;  but  why  he  should 
have  applied  to  the  recluses  of  Camaldoli  for  a  piece  of 
land  within  their  cloistral  bounds,  when  he  might  have 
chosen  a  site  much  better  timbered  and  watered,  easier 
of  access,  and  commanding  a  better  view,  has  never  been 
satisfactorily  explained.  His  application  was  accepted 
by  the  startled  cenobites,  not  without  much  grinding  of 
teeth  and  forebodings  of  trouble. 

The  Camaldulese  hermitage,  offered  to  the  disciples 
of  St.  Romuald  by  Pope  Paul  V  after  his  purchase  of 
Mondragone,  occupies  the  site  of  a  Roman  villa  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  hill  which  descends  due  north  from 
Tusculum  in  the  direction  of  Matidia's  villa  at  Le 
Cappellette.  Here  the  white-robed  and  white-bearded 
anchorites  lived  in  separate  cells,  remote  from  all  inter- 
course with  mankind  and  meeting  their  fellow  hermits 
only  in  the  dead  of  the  night,  whenever  the  tolling  of 
the  bell  interrupted  their  slumbers  at  the  most  impos- 
sible hours.  No  wonder  that  Cardinal  Passionei's  advent 
should  have  taken  them  by  surprise  and  distressed  them 
beyond  endurance.  Having  built  a  number  of  cells  in 
Camaldulese  style,  only  larger  and  more  commodious, 
one  to  be  used  as  a  library,  a  second  as  a  picture  gallery, 
a  third  as  a  cabinet  of  prints,  a  fourth  as  a  cabinet  of 
coins,  gems,  ivories,  and  bronzes,  he  built  for  his  per- 
sonal use  a  cottage  in  a  garden  laid  out  in  classic  style, 
with  edges  of  box  and  myrtle  inclosing  flower-beds  or 
sheltering  rustic  seats.  The  outside  walls  of  the  cottage 
and  of  the  cells  were  encrusted  with  about  eight  hundred 
Greek  and  Latin,  pagan  and  Christian  inscriptions  and 
bas-reliefs,  a  catalogue  of  which  was  published  at  Lucca 
in  1763.^ 

^  The  catalogue  is  the  work  of  Michelangelo  Monsacrati,  a  canon  of 


298    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN  CAMPAGNA 

Here  the  peace  of  the  hermitage  was  disturbed  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year  and  at  all  hours  of  the  day  by  worldly 
sounds  of  carriages  and  cavalcades  and  sedan-chair  par- 
ties, the  noisy  occupants  of  the  neighboring  villas  all 
claiming  hospitality  from  Passionei,  who  knew  how  to 
offer  it  en  grand  seigneur.  Popes,  kings,  and  the  fairest 
patrician  ladies  headed  his  visiting  list.  All  these  de- 
tails have  been  transmitted  to  us  by  one  of  the  cardinal's 
guests.  Pier  Leone  Ghezzi,  the  caricaturist,  and  the  most 
complete  specimen  of  an  eighteenth-century  parasite 
to  be  found  in  contemporary  chronicles.  A  jolly  poet, 
artist,  and  maker  of  toasts,  loquacious,  a  worshipper  of 
rank  and  fashion.  Pier  Leone  Ghezzi  is  rather  in  favor 
w^ith  us  on  account  of  the  magnificent  journal  of  daily 
archaeological  discoveries  which  he  kept  for  a  number  of 
years  in  a  set  of  (at  least)  thirty  folio  volumes  profusely 
illustrated  with  drawings  in  chiaroscuro.  The  set  was 
not  kept  intact  after  his  death.  Twenty-six  volumes  went 
to  the  Vatican  Library  through  the  Ottoboni  legacy; 
one  to  the  Corsini  by  purchase;  one  is  in  my  possession. 
The  volume,  however,  which  has  brought  Ghezzi's  name 
back  to  my  memory  because  it  contains  the  diary  of  his 
summer  residence  at  Camaldoli  in  1741-43,  was  pur- 
chased by  James  Byres  at  the  sale  of  the  Albani  collec- 
tion for  sixty  scudi,  and  sold  to  Charles  Townley,  from 
whom  it  passed  to  the  British  Museum.^  It  is  full  of  in- 
teresting anecdotes  and  scraps  of  gossip;  for  instance, 
that  a  bronze  coin  of  Trajan,  found  in  a  trench  for  the 

the  Lateran.  Benedetto  Passionei,  heir  to  the  estate,  having  found  it  yet 
unpublished  among  the  papers  of  his  uncle,  did  not  scruple  to  have  it 
printed  in  his  own  name. 

^  The  archaeological  memoirs  of  Ghezzi  have  been  published  by  my- 
self in  Bull.  arch,  comunale  di  Roma,  1882,  p.  205,  1893,  p.  165,  and  by 
Schreiber  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Saxony  for 
April  23,  1892. 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  299 

water  supply  of  the  Romitorio,  was  taken  possession  of 
by  Fra  Vitale,  the  gatekeeper ;  that  the  sarcophagus  into 
which  the  water  fell  at  the  head  of  the  fish  pond,  for- 
merly in  the  Giardino  della  Pigna  at  the  Vatican,  had 
been  presented  to  the  cardinal  by  Benedict  XIV;  that 
another  piece  of  statuary,  found  near  the  **  Croce  di 
Tusculo,"  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Fra  Bonifacio,  a 
lay  brother  in  the  service  of  Passionei.  *'  His  eminence," 
the  diarist  says,  "must  have  spent  at  least  forty  thou- 
sand scudi  in  this  retreat  of  Camaldoli.  It  is  so  beau- 
tiful that  the  whole  of  Rome  is  anxious  to  visit  it;  few 
crowned  heads  can  boast  of  a  Buen  Retiro  equal  to  this 
one  in  absolute  perfection;  .  .  .  but  the  cardinal  is  the 
only  man  of  taste  to  be  found  in  the  sacred  college." 

Worse  troubles  were  in  store  for  the  monks  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1741.  Pope  Benedict  XIV  was  to  be  the  guest 
of  the  Romitorio  on  October  16th,  and  James  the  Pre- 
tender on  the  19th.  The  first  came  from  Castelgan- 
dolfo,  escorted  by  a  squadron  of  cuirassiers;  the  other 
from  Frascati,  escorted  by  the  young  Princesses  Bor- 
ghese  and  Pallavicini,  '*  alone  without  damsels."  Ghezzi 
gloats  over  the  Pantagruelic  recollections  of  these  days. 
"  I  have  seen,"  he  says,  "  iced  mixtures  of  all  flavors,  and 
fruits,  and  douceurs,  and  Burgundy  and  Frontignan  dis- 
tributed even  to  the  cavalry  escort  of  the  Pope!" 

Passionei,  whose  biography  has  been  written  by  Gal- 
letti  and  Le  Beau,^  died  at  seventy-nine  on  July  5,  1761, 
and  died  in  trouble,  his  end  having  been  hastened  by 
regret  at  having  to  countersign,  in  his  oflficial  capacity  of 
Secretario  dei  Brevi,  but  against  his  conscience,  the  brief 
condemning  the  "Exposition  de  la  doctrine  chretienne" 

^  Pierluigi  Galletti,  Memorie  del  Card.  D.  Passionei,  Rome,  1762;  Le 
Beau,  Elogio  storico,  Rome,  1763;  Du  Four,  Tribvt  academique,  AvignoD, 
1760;  Cancellieri,  Lettera  sopra  il  Tarantismo,  p.  133. 


300    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 


The  three  typical  trees  of  a  Tusculan  villa,  the  pine,  the  cypress,  and  the  ilex 


of  the  Jansenist  Mezenguy.  It  is  commonly  asserted 
that  as  soon  as  Passionei  had  been  laid  to  rest  in  his 
grave  at  S.  Bernardo  alle  Terme,  the  hermitage  was  pil- 
laged and  stripped  of  all  its  contents  by  the  heirs,  so 
that  in  a  few  days'  time  the  newest  and  brightest  gem 
was  wrenched  from  the  diadem  of  villas  which  crowned 
the  "New  Tusculum."  I  believe  the  monks  to  have 
lent  a  most  willing  hand  to  the  heirs.  The  author  of  the 
"Description  of  Latium"  says:  *' About  a  mile  from 
Mondragone  is  a  convent  of  Camaldolesi.  .  .  .  These 
anchorites  usually  fix  their  residence  on  high  hills, 
remote  from  all  intercourse  with  mankind,  and  this 
situation  appears  to  be  perfectly  congenial  to  their  in- 
clinations; but  they  were  greatly  annoyed  by  the  late 
Cardinal  Passionei,  who  built  a  hermitage  near  them ;  it 
is  said  to  have  been  very  romantic  and  full  of  inscrip- 
tions, but  scarcely  any  vestige  of  it  remains,  as  the  friars 


THE  LAND  OF  CICERO  301 

took  pains  to  destroy  it,  from  a  fear  that  their  medita- 
tions might  again  be  disturbed  by  a  powerful  neighbor." 
Our  visit  to  Tusculum  ends  in  a  way  particularly  in- 
teresting to  the  Anglo-Saxon  reader.  On  the  summit  of 
the  acropolis  built  by  Telegonus  the  parricide,  centuries 
before  the  birth  of  Rome,  and  raised  still  higher  on  a 
pyramid  of  stones,  stands  a  lofty  cross  erected  some 
fifty  years  ago  by  the  students  of  the  English  college 
while  spending  the  summer  at  Monteporzio.  Accepta- 
ble and  edifying  to  the  neighborhood  was  this  simple  act 
of  faith,  which  was  chosen  as  a  subject  for  a  poem  by 
Canon  Alessi  of  Frascati  (*'La  Croce  sul  Tusculo"). 
And  it  was  from  this  spot,  commanding  a  view  of  the 
mountains  that  are  the  advanced  guard  of  the  Apen- 
nines, of  the  sea  in  which  the  sun  sets  as  in  a  golden 
bath,  and  of  the  City  of  the  Seven  Hills  lying  in  dignified 
seclusion  by  the  river  side,  that  an  English  successor  of 
Bessarion,  Baronio,  and  Passionei  drew  his  inspiration 
for  the  best  descriptive  pages  of  "Fabiola,"  one  of  the 
few  novels  the  archaeological  accuracy  of  which  defies 
criticism.  The  book  was  written  by  Cardinal  Wiseman 
mainly  under  the  pergola  of  the  English  summer-house 
at  Monteporzio,^  "beneath  whose  vines,"  he  says,  **the 
Tusculan  questions  of  generations  have  been  discussed, 
and  gleesome  chat  has  whiled  away  the  dozy  hours  of 
afternoon  sultriness."  It  is  true  that  Rome  had  fur- 
nished to  Wiseman  the  more  solid  materials  used  in  the 
construction  of  his  work,  but  for  the  tints  of  his  pictures 
and  for  any  representations  of  nature  it  was  on  the 
sweet  memories  of  summer  among  the  Tusculan  hills 
that  the  writer  had  to  draw. 

^  Compare  Wiseman,  A  Few  Flowers  from  the  Roman  Campagna, 
London,  1861. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  LAND  OF  PLINY  THE  YOUNGER  AND  THE  LAND 

OF  NERO 

PLINY  the  Younger  ranks  next  to  Cicero  in 
popularity  as  a  writer,  although  it  is  not  clear 
to  many  what  his  claims  to  such  a  high  stand- 
ing are  based  upon.  Born  in  61  or  62  at  Como,  the  son 
of  L.  Csecilius  Cilo  and  Plinia,  sister  to  Pliny  the  Elder, 
—  admiral  of  the  fleet,  whose  name  and  gallant  death 
are  so  closely  connected  with  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in 
A.  D.  79,  —  he  was  adopted  by  his  uncle,  and  given  the 
composite  name  of  Caius  Plinius  Csecilius  Secundus. 
The  Plinii  belonged  to  the  equestrian  rank,  and  born 
as  they  were  on  the  shores  of  the  most  beautiful  sheet 
of  water  in  Italy,  they  had  chosen  a  naval  career,  like 
so  many  Comaschi  of  the  present  day.  The  admiral's 
adopted  son,  however,  having  preferred  to  enter  the  civil 
service,  which  alone  could  open  to  him  the  doors  of  the 
Senate  house,  we  find  him  a  quaestor  in  91,  praetor  in  or 
about  93,  consul  in  100,  conservator  of  the  Tiber  in  105, 
and  governor  of  Bithynia  in  111  or  112.  From  a  study 
of  the  inscriptions  describing  his  career  (collected  by 
Mommsen  in  "Hermes,"  1868)  which  mention  the  gov- 
ernorship as  the  last  event  in  his  cursus  honorum,  we 
argue  that  he  must  have  died  in  that  far-away  province 
or  soon  after  his  return  to  the  capital,  leaving  no  male 
issue  from  the  three  ladies  he  had  wedded  in  succession.^ 

Compare  Raoul  Pessoneaux's  preface  to  the  Lettres  de  Pline  le  jeune, 
Paris,  Charpentier,  1886;  M.  Froment,  Annales  de  la  Faculte  de  Bordeaux, 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE   YOUNGER        303 

Pliny  was  a  clever  barrister,  a  gentlemanly  corre- 
spondent, and  a  great  lover  of  nature;  yet  his  claim  to 
immortality  rests  on  a  number  of  letters,  of  no  special 
consequence,  which  have  by  accident  escaped  the  wreck 
of  time.  Had  some  of  his  orations  come  down  to  us, 
perhaps  our  estimation  of  his  worth  might  have  been 
different.  He  practised  as  a  rule  before  the  Court  of  the 
Centumviri  in  the  Basilica  Julia,  or  else  at  the  bar  of  the 
Senate  house,  whenever  the  impeachment  of  a  member 
happened  to  be  on  the  order  of  the  day.  It  is  said  that 
his  defence  of  Attia  Viriola  in  the  Basilica  Julia,  and  of 
Julius  Bassus  in  the  Curia,  were  worthy  of  Cicero  him- 
self ;  but  to  judge  from  the  only  specimen  we  have  of  his 
oratorical  powers  —  the  panegyric  on  Trajan  —  we  must 
pronounce  him  a  mannered,  obsequious,  pretentious 
speaker.  It  is  only  fair,  however,  to  acknowledge  that 
that  bombastic  eulogy  is  not  the  one  spoken  in  the  Senate 
house,  but  a  version  revised  at  home,  and  rather  spoiled 
by  a  superabundance  of  antitheses,  hyperboles,  and  meta- 
phors. Pliny  had  also  attempted  to  scale  Parnassus. 
A  tragedy  which  he  composed  at  fourteen,  some  elegies 
and  epigrams,  and  a  book  of  hendecasyllables  which  he 
wrote  at  forty-one  have  luckily  been  lost.  They  must 
have  ranked  in  value  with  those  of  Augurinus,  of  which 
we  have  a  specimen  in  letter  iv,  27;  at  all  events,  they 
vastly  pleased  his  third  wife,  Calpurnia,  who  set  them  to 
music  and  sang  them,  although  Pliny  himself  declared 
that  the  lady  had  never  taken  a  lesson  in  the  art  of  Erato. 

There  are  ten  books  of  Pliny's  epistles.  The  first 
nine,  published  in  his  lifetime,  are  of  private  charac- 
ter; the  last  book,  published  by  his  heirs,  contains  the 
official  correspondence  exchanged  with  Trajan  on  affairs 

vol.  iii,  n.  2;  Bender,  Pline  (Tapres  ses  lettres,  Tubingen,  1873;  Lagergren, 
De  vita  et  elocutione  Plinii  junioris,  Upsala,  1872. 


304    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

concerning  the  administration  of  Bithynia.  It  would 
be  absurd  to  compare  these  letters  with  Cicero's.  The 
latter  constitute  a  historical  document  of  inestimable 
value;  Pliny's  are  a  charming  contribution  to  the  study 
of  social  and  literary  life  under  the  rule  of  the  ''best 
of  princes."  They  were  written  with  a  view  to  their 
publication  and  therefore  lack  spontaneity;  but  their 
writer  is  never  commonplace  or  a  gossip;  he  is  a  thor- 
ough man  of  the  world,  kind  in  the  extreme,  refined,  and 
of  sound  judgment  in  literary  or  social  affairs. 

The  tenth  book  does  no  credit  to  Pliny's  adminis- 
trative powers.  He  seems  bent  on  putting  the  patience 
of  his  master,  Trajan,  to  a  sore  test,  plying  him  with 
questions  concerning  the  most  pettifogging  local  affairs, 
—  whether  a  statue  can  be  removed  from  the  Forum 
to  the  Baths,  or  a  corpse  from  one  grave  to  another; 
or  whether  bail  can  be  allowed  to  certain  offenders. 
Trajan,  on  the  other  hand,  never  loses  his  equanimity: 
the  governor,  who  shirks  the  least  responsibility,  is 
always  addressed  by  him  as  Secunde  carissime,  or  mi 
Secunde  I  but  he  betrays  his  inner  appreciation  of  the 
case  by  answering  almost  in  monosyllables.  On  this 
point  letters  xli  of  the  governor  and  xlii  of  the  emperor 
are  typical.  In  the  first  Pliny  enlarges  on  the  grandeur 
and  usefulness  of  a  scheme  for  joining  Lake  Sophon, 
east  of  Nicomedia,  with  the  river  Sangarius,  and  in- 
directly with  the  sea,  by  means  of  a  navigable  canal.  He 
says  that  a  forgotten  king  must  have  attempted  the 
work,  judging  from  certain  traces  of  dams  and  ditches 
which  he  had  noticed  in  studying  the  ground.  The 
question  was  whether  the  lake  lay  high  enough  above 
the  level  of  the  sea  that  its  waters  might  be  drawn  into 
the  canal.  Would  the  emperor  be  willing  to  trust  a  pre- 
liminary investigation  to  a  surveyor  or  to  an  engineer  ? 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE   YOUNGER        305 

—  and  so  on,  with  touches  here  and  there  of  official  adula- 
tion. Trajan's  answer  consists  of  forty-five  words.  "  We 
may  be  willing  to  consider  thy  scheme.  The  danger  is 
that,  a  water-way  once  opened,  the  whole  lake  might 
empty  itself  into  the  sea.  Ask  Calpurnius  Macer  to  send 
thee  an  expert." 

The  best  trait  of  Pliny's  character  was  his  generosity. 
His  influence  in  the  Senate  house,  his  credit  at  court,  his 
time,  and  his  purse  were  always  at  the  disposal  of  friends 
in  need.  To  Metellinus  Crispus,  for  whom  he  had  ob- 
tained a  captaincy  in  one  of  the  legions,  Pliny  supplied 
the  funds  for  his  equipment;  to  Romatius  Firmus,  a  fel- 
low-citizen from  Como,  the  means  of  entering  the  eques- 
trian order;  to  Artemidorus,  a  philosopher  banished 
from  Rome,  his  travelling  expenses;  to  the  poet  Martial, 
the  cost  of  a  journey  to  his  native  country ;  to  the 
daughter  of  Quintilian,  a  considerable  part  of  her  mar- 
riage settlement.  Again,  we  find  him  giving  up  a  farm- 
house to  his  aged  nurse,  that  she  might  end  her  days  in 
peace,  or  tearing  to  pieces  the  deeds  showing  the  liabili- 
ties incurred  by  his  cousin  Calvina.  These  and  other  per- 
sonal gifts  varied  from  a  minimum  of  fifty  to  a  maximum 
of  three  hundred  thousand  sesterces  (from  two  thousand 
to  twelve  thousand  dollars);  but  to  his  native  town  of 
Como  he  bequeathed  a  library  valued  at  one  million 
sesterces  (forty  thousand  dollars)  and  a  further  sum  of 
half  a  million  for  the  higher  education  of  boys  and  girls. 
Such  liberalities  are  the  more  conspicuous  if  we  re- 
member that  Pliny  was  not  a  wealthy  man.  He  himself 
speaks  of  his  modest  means  in  letter  iv,  2,  modest  at 
least  in  comparison  w  ith  the  average  wealth  of  a  Senator ; 
but  he  made  up  the  deficiency  by  leading  as  simple  a 
life  as  was  consistent  with  his  social  status  and  connec- 
tion with  the  court. 


306    WANDERINGS  IN   THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

He  owned  three  estates,  —  one  at  Como,  one  at  Citta  di 
Castello,  one  on  the  coast  of  Laurentum,  which  he  de- 
scribes with  loving  care  in  letter  xvii  of  the  second  book. 
Archaeologists  have  transformed  Pliny's  den  at  Lauren- 
tum into  an  immense  structure  fit  for  an  emperor  or  for 
a  financial  magnate.  Canina,  for  instance,  assigns  to  it 
a  frontage  of  250  feet,  a  depth  of  156,  and  a  total  area, 
outbuildings  included,  of  550,000  square  feet  ;  ^  and  yet 
Pliny  himself  speaks  of  his  Laurentinum  as  being  of  no 
importance  whatever.^  *'Hail,"  he  says,  "has  ruined 
the  crop  in  my  farm  at  Tifernum  Tiber inum  [Citta  di 
Castello].  From  my  tenants  at  Como  I  hear  of  better 
prospects,  but  of  low  market  prices.  My  Laurentinum 
alone  seems  to  be  right,  but  what  do  I  own  there  ?  A 
cottage  and  a  garden  surrounded  by  sands!" 

I  am,  I  believe,  the  only  living  archaeologist  who  can 
claim  the  privilege  of  having  entered  Pliny's  house  and 
walked  over  its  floors  and  beheld  its  aspect,  during  the 
excavations  made  in  1906  to  gather  materials  for  the 
macadamizing  of  a  new  royal  road.  There  cannot  be 
any  uncertainty  about  its  site.  Pliny  himself  points  it 
out,  with  due  precision,  when  he  writes:  "I  can  get  the 
necessaries  of  life  from  the  nearest  village,  from  which 
I  am  separated  by  only  one  villa. "  The  village,  called 
the  Vicus  Augustanus  Laurentum,  was  discovered  by 
King  Victor  Emmanuel  in  1874,  and  its  Forum  and  its 
Curia  are  still  traceable  through  the  undergrowth.  West 
of  it,  in  the  direction  of  Ostia,  there  are  two  villa- 
mounds,  the  nearer  being  the  intermediate  one  men- 
tioned in  Pliny's  letter,  the  farther  his  own.  Its  site  is 
marked  by  a  cluster  of  old  ilexes,  named  the  Palombara, 
because  it  was  a  favorite  spot  for  shooting  wild  pigeons 

*  Luigi  Canina,  Edifizii  di  Roma  anticay  vol.  vi,  plate  cxv. 
'  Epistles,  book  iv,  n.  6. 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE  YOUNGER        307 

(palombacci)  whenever  the  Sacchetti  or  the  Chigi  were 
staying  at  Castel  Fusano.  Nothing  was  found  in  1906 
but  bare  walls,  a  fact  which  stands  to  reason  if  we  con- 
sider that  the  mound  had  been  searched  thrice  before, 
in  1713  by  Marcello  Sacchetti,  in  1802  and  1819  by 
Agostino  Chigi. ^  We  must  remember,  besides,  that  not 
a  brick  nor  a  stone  of  the  original  structure  may  have 
been  left  in  situ.  From  the  time  of  Trajan,  when  Pliny 
dwelt  at  Laurentum,  to  the  first  barbarian  invasions, 
who  knows  how  often  the  property  changed  hands  and 
underwent  repairs  or  even  reconstruction  ?  The  same 
thing  must  be  said  of  the  intermediate  villa,  considered 
by  some  to  have  belonged  to  Hortensius  the  orator. 
Varro  describes  a  banquet  to  which  he  had  been  invited 
by  the  celebrated  lawyer.  *'  Within  the  walled  inclos- 
ure  of  five  hundred  acres  rises  a  sand  hill,  on  the  top 
of  which  the  meal  was  served.  To  please  his  guests, 
Hortensius  summoned  the  attendance  of  Orpheus  [a 
hired  musician],  who  appeared  clad  in  a  long  robe,  with 
a  lyre  in  his  hands;  but  instead  of  the  lyre  he  sounded 
the  huntsman's  horn,  and  the  appeal  was  answered  by 
such  a  number  of  wild  boars  and  deer  that  we  thought 
to  have  been  suddenly  transferred  to  the  Circus  on  the 
day  of  a  hunting  performance. " 

To  reach  his  cottage  from  Rome,  Pliny  had  the  choice 
of  four  roads,  —  the  Ostiensis,  the  Laurentina,  the  Lavi- 
niatis,  and  a  cross  lane  through  the  Ager  Solonius  (Cas- 
tel Porziano).  These  four  were  connected  and  made 
equally  serviceable  to  him  by  the  Via  Severiana,  which 
ran  parallel  with  the  shore.  1  have  followed  each  of 
these  lines  of  communication,  by  special  permission  of 
His  Majesty  the  King,  to  whom  the  territory  of  Lauren- 

^  Particulars  about  these  excavations  are  to  be  found  in  Pietro  Marquez's 
Delia  villa  di  Plinio  il  giovane  and  in  Fea's  Viaggio  ad  Ostia. 


308    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 


A  view  of  the  pine  forest  near  Laurentum 

turn  belongs ;  and  the  results  of  my  labors  have  been 
made  known  to  students  in  a  memoir  published  by  the 
Reale  Accademia  dei  Lincei  in  1903,*  amply  illustrated 
with  maps  and  diagrams. 

The  path  from  Ostia  and  Castel  Fusano  to  Pliny's  villa 
at  La  Palombara,  and  thence  to  the  Vicus  Augustanu& 
and  Laurentum  (Torre  Paterna),  runs  through  the  pine 
forest  planted  by  the  Sacchetti  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  area  of  which  has  been  trebled  since  it  was  joined  to 
the  royal  shooting  preserves  in  1875.  Many  thousand 
pines  are  planted  every  year  and  great  care  is  taken  to 
keep  the  older  ones  in  a  healthy  state.  The  pavement 
of  the  Via  Sever iana  is  seen  at  rare  intervals,  flanked  on 

*  "  Le  antichita  del  territorio  Laurentino  nella  reale  Tenuta  di  Castel 
Porziano,"  in  Monumenti  antichi,  vol.  xiii,  1903,  pp.  134-198.  A  second 
paper  on  the  same  subject  was  published  in  vol.  xvi,  1906,  pp.  262-274.. 
A  third  is  now  in  press. 


THE   LAND   OF  PLINY  THE  YOUNGER        309 

the  side  toward  the  sea  by  mounds  representing  villas, 
cottages,  or  bath-houses,  the  remains  of  which  are  bur- 
ied in  sand  or  concealed  by  the  undergrowth.  I  have 
counted  nine  groups  of  ruins  west  of  Lauren  turn;  seven- 
teen between  Laurentum  and  Ardea;  fourteen  between 
Antium  and  Astura;  and  I  speak  only  of  those  which 
can  be  noticed  without  difficulty  either  from  the  path 
or  from  the  shore,  —  perhaps  one  fourth  of  the  original 
number.  The  fascination  of  this  green  wilderness  can- 
not be  expressed  in  words.  The  forest,  in  which  the 
*'amans  littora  pinus"  towers  above  all  other  sylvan 
giants,  offers  certain  recesses  so  shady  and  mysterious 
that  they  charm  the  eye  and  gladden  the  soul.  Some- 
times their  stillness  is  broken  by  the  inrush  of  wild 
boars,  or  deer,  or  gazelles,  which,  after  staring  a  moment 
in  surprise  at  the  intruder,  disappear  into  their  leafy 
haunts.  Louis  Petit-Radel,  Canon  of  Conserans,  who 
explored  these  forests  in  1796,  in  quest  of  specimens  for 
the  botanical  garden  which  he  was  arranging  in  the 
cloisters  of  San  Pietro  in  Vinculis,  mentions  twenty 
species  of  underwood,  among  them  myrtle,  rosemary, 
juniper,  laurel,  terebinth,  erica,  viburnum,  and  two  spe- 
cies of  daphne.  When  all  these  are  blossoming  with 
the  advent  of  spring,  their  mixed  perfume,  borne  on  the 
land  breeze,  reaches  the  coasting  craft  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  shore. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  when  ^Eneas  first  sailed 
along  this  coast  its  decoration  of  evergreens  must  have 
appeared  the  same.  It  was  only  in  the  Augustan  age 
that  a  change  of  scene  took  place,  owing  to  the  trans- 
formation of  the  deserted  Laurentum  into  an  imperial 
hunting  estate.  It  was  already  known,  from  the  grave- 
stone of  a  freedman  of  Claudius,  —  Speculator  .by 
name,  head  keeper  of  the  crown  domains  in  the  Bay  of 


310    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROIVIAN   CAMPAGNA 

Gaeta  and  ^procurator  Laurento  ad  elephantos,^  —  that 
a  section  of  the  estate  was  set  apart  for  the  breeding 
of  elephants;  and  from  the  *' Liber  Pontificalis "  it  was 
known  that  another  section  was  given  up  to  the  breeding 
of  peacocks.  The  knowledge,  however,  that  the  exten- 
sive forests  of  Castel  Porziano  and  Castel  Fusano  were 
used  in  classic  times  for  absolutely  the  same  purpose  as 


^ 

> 

■ 

.h 

^ 

-..■..■• 

^^^>  ^' 

vj 

M  ^ 

i& 

^M 

SL 

_____ 

J 

Cl 

=^ 

==;<*<" 

Inscription  of  gamekeepers  and  other  marbles  discovered  by 
Queen  Elena  in  the  excavations  of  the  Vicus  Augustanus 
Laurentum 

at  present,  and  that  they  were  watched  by  a  body  of 
gamekeepers  similar  to  the  one  which  to-day  wears  the 
King's  gray  uniform,  has  been  obtained  only  within  the 
last  few  weeks,  by  means  of  an  inscription  discovered 
*  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.  Lat,  vol.  vi,  Part  II,  n.  8583. 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE   YOUNGER        311 

at  the  Vicus  Augustanus  by  our  Gracious  Queen,  — 
model  sovereign,  model  mother,  model  wife,  model 
sister  of  charity,  whose  name  no  Italian  can  mention 
without  feelings  of  devotion  and  gratitude.  It  is  an 
exquisite  trait  of  the  Royal  Lady's  character  that  she 
should  seek  diversion  from  the  cares  of  her  exalted  sta- 
tion in  the  exploration  of  the  ancient  mounds  in  the  land 
of  Pliny  the  Younger.  This  exploration  has  not  been 
taken  up  as  a  pastime,  nor  for  the  attraction  that  the 
chance  of  the  unexpected  offers  to  ordinary  minds;  it  is 
carried  on  methodically,  scientifically,  with  a  given  pur- 
pose, every  object  of  interest  being  at  once  transferred 
to  the  Museo  Nazionale  alle  Terme,  to  increase  the  col- 
lections of  the  Sala  Laurentina.  The  inscription  found 
at  the  Vicus  Augustanus  describes  how  a  certain  Aglaus, 
president  of  the  guild  of  imperial  gamekeepers  (colle- 
gium  saltuariorum),  had  offered  to  his  fellow  workers 
a  set  of  portrait  busts  of  their  sovereigns  {imagines 
dominorum  nostrorum),  to  be  set  up  either  in  the  schola 
or  meeting-room  of  the  guild,  or  else  in  the  local  Augus- 
teum,  remains  of  which  are  still  extant  in  the  forum  of 
the  village. 

Mention  of  these  saltuarii  occurs  so  seldom  in  Latin 
epigraphy  that  a  certain  amount  of  doubt  was  still 
entertained  as  to  the  exact  meaning  of  the  word,  whether 
they  were  woodkeepers  (guardaboschi  or  saltari,  as  they 
are  still  called  in  the  Venetian  provinces)  or  gamekeepers 
(guardacaccie).  A  mosaic  picture  discovered  in  1878  in 
a  bath-house  erected  by  Pompeianus  at  the  springs  of 
Hammam  Grus,  two  miles  east  of  Oued  Atmenia,  on 
the  road  from  Constantine  (Cirta)  to  Setif  (Sitifis), 
shows  a  body  of  saltuarii  engaged  in  their  professional 
business,  a  stag-hunt  arranged  by  their  patron  Pompei- 
anus for  a  few  friends.    The  guests,   mounted  on  Arab 


312    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

hunters,  seem  to  be  driving  three  stags  into  the  septum 
venationis  with  the  help  of  two  dogs,  Castus  and  Fidelis, 
and  of  three  gamekeepers,  Daunus,  Diaz,  and  Liber/ 
It  seems  that  the  free  life  of  the  forest  must  have  made 
these  men  long  lived,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  ripe  age 
of  eighty-five  reached  by  Eutyches,  saltuarius  of  a  pre- 
serve near  Nueeria  Alfaterna.^ 

By  comparing  the  former  with  the  present  state  of 
Laurentum  we  can  better  appreciate  the  skill  with 
which  the  ancients  were  endowed  for  turning  waste 
lands  into  an  "earthly  paradise."  Where  we  behold  a 
lonesome  house,  the  Torre  Paterna,  used  for  the  royal 
kennels  in  the  hunting  season  and  left  in  desolation 
for  six  months  of  the  year,  —  a  house  six  miles  distant 
from  the  nearest  human  habitation,  —  the  Romans  had 
created  a  Margate  full  of  life  and  gayety,  connected  with 
the  capital  by  four  excellent  roads,  and  with  the  neigh- 
boring resorts  (Ostia,  Vicus  Augustanus,  Lavinium, 
Ardea,  Invicastrum,  Antium)  by  the  Via  Severiana. 
The  latter  ran  along  the  shore  between  villas  and  cot- 
tages on  the  side  toward  the  sea  and  the  edge  of  the  for- 
est on  the  land  side ;  and  where  we  now  must  quench 
our  thirst  with  water  from  wells  dug  in  the  sand,  an 
imperial  aqueduct  many  miles  long  brought  a  substan- 
tial supply  of  water  for  public  and  private  use. 

There  is  more  history  condensed  within  the  walls  of 
this  solitary  house  than  within  those  of  many  a  great 
city.  We  can  trace  it  twenty-eight  centuries  back  to  the 
day  when  the  Laurentines  beheld  a  strange  fleet  sailing 

*  Compare  PouUe,  Annates  de  Constantine,  a.  1878,  p.  431;  id.,  Les 
Bains  de  Pompeianus,  Constantine,  1879;  Corpus  Inscr.  Lat.,  vol.  viii, 
Part  II,  n.  10889-10891. 

^  Corpus  Inscr.  Lat,  vol.  x,  n.  1085. 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE   YOUNGER        313 

westward  along  their  beach  in  quest  of  a  haven,  and 
wondered  whether  it  was  manned  by  friends  or  foes. 
Rome  had  not  yet  come  into  existence,  and  the  Lauren- 
tines  could  not  foresee  that  its  foundation  would  be  the 


The  hamlet  of  Torre  Paterna,  once  a  hunting  lodge  of  Roman  emperors  in  the 
forest  of  Laurentum;  later  a  watch-tower  against  the  Algerian  pirates;  at  present 
used  for  the  royal  kennels  in  connection  with  the  preserves  of  Castel  Porziano 


result  of  the  welcome  they  gave  to  the  pilgrims  led  by 
^neas. 

The  name  of  the  village,  Laurentum,  has  been  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  mythical  Acca  Larentia,  whereas 
it  owes  its  origin  to  the  laurel  groves  by  which  it  was 
surrounded.  For  the  same  reason  we  find  in  Rome  itself 
two  aristocratic  parishes  of  the  Aventine  named  Laure- 
tum  Majus  and  Lauretum  Minus.  Whenever  electricity 
was  felt  in  the  air  the  Emperor  Vitellius  sought  shelter 
in  the  Laurentine  forest,  because  the  trees  were  con- 
sidered to  be  non-conductors.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
fearful  plague  of  189  a.  d.  Commodus  was  isolated  at 


314    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Laurentum  by  the  court  physicians,  because  the  power- 
ful and  wholesome  scent  of  the  trees  would  keep  the 
air  free  from  contamination.  The  laurels  disappeared 
long  ago,  but  a  reminder  of  these  events  has  lasted  to 
the  present  day  in  the  name  Pantan  di  Lauro  given  to  a 
marsh  ^  adjoining  the  Torre  Paterna  on  the  east  side. 

From  its  alliance  with  the  new-comers  and  from  the 
marriage  of  Lavinia,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Alba,  with 
^neas,  Laurentum  was  given  the  name  of  '*  Second 
Troy,"  and  became  the  cradle  of  the  Roman  people.  But 
by  the  foundation  of  Lavinium  —  now  Pratica  di  Mare 
—  on  a  healthy  hill,  only  five  miles  distant,  and  by  the 
transfer  thither  of  the  sacred  tokens  of  the  Common- 
wealth, the  Penates,  which  iEneas  had  carried  away 
with  him  from  the  mother  country,  Laurentum  lost  su- 
premacy, prestige,  and  population.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  Republic  the  site  of  the  deserted  village  was  occupied 
by  a  farmhouse,  which  Augustus  purchased  and  trans- 
formed into  an  imperial  seaside  residence;  and  we  are 
told  that  the  wife  of  the  caretaker,  having  given  birth 
to  five  children  at  one  time,  and  having  lost  her  life 
in  the  ordeal,  was  honored  by  Augustus  with  a  beautiful 
memorial  set  up  on  the  Via  Laurentina.  At  the  time  of 
Constantine  the  property  was  transferred  to  the  churches 
of  the  Saviour  and  of  the  Holy  Cross. ^  What  became  of 
it  in  the  middle  ages  is  not  known.  The  forest  spread 
across  the  Via  Severiana,  over  to  the  strip  of  land  once 
occupied  by  gardens;  the  pines  and  ilexes  thrust  their 
roots  into  the   pavement  of   the  road   and  the  fallen 

^  This  venerable  landmark  will  be  removed  in  the  course  of  the  coming 
winter  and  the  water  drained,  in  obedience  to  the  laws  for  the  sanitation 
of  the  Campagna,  of  which  King  Victor  Emmanuel  is  the  strictest  upholder. 

^  The  Lateran  and  the  Hierusalem,  now  called  Sante  Croce  in  Geru- 
salemme. 


THE    LAND    OF    PLINY   THE   YOUNGER       315 

masonry  of  the  villas;  the  sea  receded;  sand  dunes  rose 
where  palaces  had  stood.  Then  came  the  inroads  of  the 
barbarians  from  Algiers,  like  the  one  of  May  5,  1588, 
in  which  the  whole  population  of  Pratica  di  Mare  was 
carried  away  in  chains,  —  thirty-nine  men,  twenty-eight 
women,  and  thirty-five  laborers  from  the  Marche,  whose 
names  are  recorded  in  the  annals  of  the  Compagnia  del 
Gonfalone. 

In  consequence  of  these  sudden  inroads  the  coast  of 
the  Pope's  states  from  Corneto  to  Terracina  was  lined 
with  thirty-eight  watch-towers,  from  the  tops  of  which 
scouts  could  watch  the  sea  by  day  and  by  night  and  give 
warning  of  the  approach  of  any  suspicious  sail  by  firing 
a  gun  or  tolling  a  bell  or  lighting  a  beacon.  Some  of 
the  towers  on  this  part  of  the  coast  are  still  in  existence, 
like  the  Torre  Vajanica  and  the  Keep  of  Pratica  di 
Mare;  but  the  one  built  by  Marcantonio  Colonna^  on  the 
ruins  of  the  Augustan  villa  at  Laurentum,  and  named 
Torre  Paterna  in  memory  of  his  father  Ascanio,  was 
dismantled  by  the  shots  of  a  British  sloop-of-war  in 
the  year  1812.  British  guns  have  sometimes  bombarded 
queer  places;  but  it  seems  hardly  possible  that  they 
should  have  brought  havoc  and  destruction  upon  this 
inoffensive  and  unobtrusive  home  of  iEneas,  which  had 
won  a  prominent  place  in  history  eight  or  nine  centuries 
before  the  crossing  of  the  Channel  by  Julius  Csesar 
made  known  to  the  Romans  the  name  and  the  existence 
of  Londinium. 

In  the  spring  of  1906,  while  hunting  at  Castel  Porziano, 
Queen  Elena  caused  one  of  the  mounds  —  the  fourth 
to  the  east  of  Laurentum  —  to  be  explored  under  her 

*  Another  tower  built  by  the  same  Marcantonio  near  Antium  was  given 
the  name  of  Torre  Materna,  in  memory  of  his  mother,  Giovannad'  Aragona. 


I 


316    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

personal  care.  The  attempt  was  rewarded  with  the  dis- 
covery, the  first  in  my  experience,  of  a  cottage  of  modest 
size  and  fit  for  a  family  of  modest  means,  such  as  are  to 
be  found  by  the  hundred  in  the  outskirts  of  our  large 
cities  and  in  our  watering-places.  Having  followed 
almost  day  by  day  the  progress  of  the  excavations,  I  was 
enabled  to  reconstruct  the  past  of  this  charming  little 
house,  and  to  gather  from  the  reconstruction  an  idea  of 
the  life  led  by  its  classic  owners,  placed  as  they  were 
between  the  sea  where  the  mullus  swam  in  shoals  and 
the  forest  teeming  with  game. 

The  lodge  had  a  frontage  of  67  feet  and  a  depth  of 
74  feet.  It  was  entered  from  the  Via  Severiana  by  a 
porch  supported  by  eight  marble  columns,  and  from 
the  sea  by  three  small  flights  of  stairs  leading  to  three 
French  windows,  the  middle  of  which  belonged  to  the 
sitting-room,  the  side  ones  to  bedrooms  connected  with 
dressing-rooms.  On  either  side  of  the  French  windows, 
on  marble  pedestals,  stood  vases  for  flowering  shrubs, 
such  as  the  oleander,  pomegranate,  and  lemon.  There 
were  two  more  bedrooms  within  the  cottage,  a  dining- 
room,  a  veranda,  and  a  bath-room.  In  its  compact- 
ness and  its  sense  of  comfort,  as  well  as  its  proximity 
to  Laurentum  and  to  the  sea,  this  "villino"  may  be 
taken  as  an  illustration  of  the  one  owned  by  Pliny 
on  the  same  road  and  on  the  same  shore.  Queen 
Elena's  cottage  —  as  it  will  henceforth  be  known  in 
archaeological  manuals  —  was  rebuilt  in  the  year  142 
A.  D.  on  the  site  of  an  older  one,  by  a  person  of  good 
taste  and  modest  means,  probably  by  an  official  of  the 
court  of  Antoninus  Pius,  who  was  at  that  time  the  ruler 
of  the  Empire.  Whoever  this  person  was,  he  showed 
himself  to  be  a  clever  builder  and  a  clever  landscape 
gardener,  judging  from  the  graceful  pattern  of  the  mosaic 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY  THE  YOUNGER 

LATO   VERSO    LA   VIA    SEVERIANA 


317 


GIARDINO  SUL  MARE 


J i : 1 ^ 


Plan  of  the  Roman  cottage  discovered  by  Queen  Elena  on  the  coast  of  Lauren- 
turn.   The  Discobolus  was  found  near  its  pedestal  at  the  place  marked  G 

and  marble  floors,  and  from  the  picturesque  arrange- 
ment of  the  three  staircases  descending  to  the  garden 
and  the  sea.  The  lodge  was  fit  to  be  inhabited  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year,  owing  to  the  simple  and  eflficient 


318    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

precautions  taken  by  its  designer  to  have  it  thoroughly 
warmed  and  ventilated.  The  heating  was  done  by 
means  of  a  furnace,  placed  under  the  bath-room  or 
calidarium,  which  a  slave  could  light  and  keep  going 
from  the  outside,  through  an  underground  passage 
which  opened  on  the  kitchen  garden,  the  hot  air  being 
forced  through  the  hypocausts  of  the  apartment  with 
the  aid  of  flues  opening  on  the  roof.  The  house  was 
one-storied,  no  traces  of  stairs  having  been  noticed  any- 
where. Kitchen,  pantry,  larder,  laundry,  sleeping-rooms 
for  servants  and  slaves,  and  other  such  appendages 
of  a  dwellinghouse,  must  have  been  in  an  outbuilding, 
traces  of  which  have  been  noticed  on  the  side  of  the 
highroad.  I  must  mention,  in  the  last  place,  that  there 
were  no  folding  doors  to  insure  the  privacy  of  the 
rooms,  but  only  heavy  curtains,  kept  rigid  by  means  of 
tassels,  the  cores  of  which  were  made  of  pear-shaped 
lumps  of  baked  clay.  Several  of  these  weights  were 
found  lying  on  the  marble  thresholds  of  the  various 
apartments.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  they  were  not 
used  for  a  weaver's  loom,  nor  for  fishermen's  nets,  as 
is  generally  the  case  with  such  objects. 

I  apologize  to  the  reader  for  mentioning  so  many 
details,  but,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  the  finding  of 
a  Roman  cottage  in  which  we  twentieth-century  people 
could  dwell  in  ease  and  comfort  is  such  a  novel  thing 
that  I  consider  it  a  duty  to  make  it  known  outside  pro- 
fessional circles,  in  the  hope  that  some  wealthy  amateur 
may  be  persuaded  to  reproduce  it  in  its  integrity,  so  as 
to  give  young  students  and  young  architects  an  object 
lesson  in  rational  cottage  building. 

The  statue  of  the  Discobolus  here  represented  was 
discovered  in  the  early  morning  of  April   24,    1909, 


OF  Tup 


OF 


THE    LAND    OF   PLINY   THE    YOUNGER       321 

lying  in  pieces  near  its  own  pedestal  at  the  foot  of  the 
side  garden  stairs.  When  I  arrived  on  the  spot  about  the 
hour  of  noon,  all  hope  of  recovering  the  missing  head 
had  already  been  given  up.  Detached  from  the  body  at 
the  moment  of  its  fall,  it  must  have  shared  the  fate  of 
so  many  other  heads,  which  were  rounded  into  the  shape 
of  balls  to  be  used  in  the  game  of  boccie,  or  else  used  as 
weights  for  scales,  with  the  help  of  iron  rings  fixed  in 
the  top.  As  a  rule  seventy-five  statues  in  a  hundred 
are  found  headless,  and  likewise  seventy-five  heads  are 
found  without  bodies. 

The  statue  unearthed  on  April  24  is  a  copy,  and  a 
very  excellent  one,  of  the  Disk-thrower  of  Myron,  a 
subject  in  great  favor  with  the  Romans.  Three  other 
replicas  were  already  known.  The  first  is  the  celebrated 
'*  Discobolo  Lancellotti,"  discovered  in  the  Lamian  gar- 
dens on  the  Esquiline  by  the  Marchesa  Barbara  Massimi 
di  Palombara  on  January  14,  1781,  and  now  preserved 
in  the  Lancellotti  palace  under  lock  and  key,  so  that  no 
student  has  been  able  to  examine  it.  Such  an  idiosyn- 
crasy is  the  more  surprising  when  we  remember  that 
kindness  and  generosity  to  others  has  always  been 
characteristic  of  the  Roman  aristocracy.  The  second 
replica,  now  in  the  Sala  della  Biga,  n.  618,  was  found 
by  Count  Giuseppe  Fede  in  1791  near  the  so-called 
Nymphseum  of  Hadrian's  villa,  stolen  by  Napoleon,  and 
brought  back  to  Rome  after  the  peace  of  1815.  The 
third,  a  torso,  belonged  to  the  French  sculptor,  Etienne 
Monnot,  in  whose  studio  it  was  transformed  into  a 
Dying  Warrior  and  then  sold  to  the  Capitoline  Museum. 
Helbig  considers  Monnot's  torso  the  most  admirable  of 
all  and  the  one  which  comes  nearest  to  the  perfection  of 
Myron's  original.  Ill  luck  seems  to  have  followed  these 
Discoboli;  they  all  have  met  with  unfair  treatment.    In 


322   WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

the  restoration  of   the  Fede  replica  made  by  Albacini 
the  poise  of  the  head  is   decidedly  wrong.    A  fourth 


The  Discobolus  found  by  Queen  Elena  at  Laurentum  in  a 
fragmentary  state 

Discobolus,  found  by  Gavin  Hamilton  in  1781,  was 
restored  as  a  Diomedes  stealing  the  Palladium;  and  a 
fifth,  of  the  Uffizi,  was  transformed  first  into  an  En- 
dymion,  later  into  a  son  of  Niobe.    No  such  fate  has 


THE    LAND    OF    PLINY   THE    YOUNGER       323 

befallen  the  one  discovered  at  Laurentum;  no  restora- 
tion of  the  original  marble  has  been  attempted;  but  side 


Plaster  cast  of  Queen  Elena's  Discobolus,  with  the  addition 
of  the  right  arm  now  in  the  Buonarroti  Museum  at  Florence 
and  of  the  Lancellotti  head,  a  cast  of  which  has  been  found 
in  Paris 

by  side  with  it  a  complete  plaster  cast  has  been  placed, 
each  of  the  missing  limbs  having  been  carefully  chosen 
from  other  replicas,  and  adapted  to  the  fractures  or 
joints  of  the  marble.    The  right  arm,  holding  the  disk, 


324     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

was  found  in  the  Galleria  Buonarroti  in  Florence,  and  it 
fits  the  torso  of  Laurentum  so  exactly  as  to  give  rise  to 
the  question  whether  it  is  not  the  original  one  found  by 
the  Del  Nero,  Lords  of  Castel  Porziano,  when  they  first 
excavated  Queen  Elena's  cottage.  The  head  was  cast 
from  a  mould  in  the  Louvre,  the  feet  from  the  Disco- 
bolus of  the  British  Museum.  Professor  G.  E.  Rizzo, 
the  author  of  this  remarkable  reconstruction,  has  given 
an  interesting  account  of  it  in  "Bullettino  d' Arte, "  vol. 
i,  1907. 

A  third  campaign  of  exploration,  made  in  the  spring 
of  the  present  year,  disclosed  a  curious  fact,  —  that  the 
Romans  objected  to  bathing  in  the  open  sea,  or  at  least 
that  they  preferred  to  bathe  in  sea  water  warmed  arti- 
ficially in  the  piscina  of  an  establishment,  where  more 
comfort  could  be  found  than  on  the  unsheltered  beach. 
This  is  the  only  explanation  we  can  give  of  the  fact  that 
the  whole  coast  from  the  Vicus  Augustanus  to  Lauren- 
tum, and  even  beyond  in  the  direction  of  Ardea,  is  lined 
with  these  bath-houses,  a  few  of  modest  size  and  capa- 
ble of  accommodating  only  two  or  three  dozen  clients; 
others  so  vast  in  their  plan,  so  rich  in  their  decoration, 
that  they  appear  like  city  structures,  ready  to  receive 
great  crowds  of  bathers.  Pliny  speaks  of  this  curious 
state  of  affairs  on  the  coast  of  Laurentum  in  his  letter 
to  Gallus.  The  description  which  he  gives  is  so  true, 
and  is  substantiated  so  clearly  by  the  discoveries  of  the 
last  three  campaigns,  that  it  is  necessary  to  quote  it 
in  extenso.  "Nothing  is  wanting  to  make  the  Lauren- 
tinum  perfect  but  spring  water,  although  one  is  always 
sure  to  find  drinkable  water  a  few  inches  below  the 
level  of  the  sands,  fresh  enough  in  spite  of  the  proxim- 
ity of  the  sea.  The  forests  on  the  other  side  of  the  road 
supply  me  with  fuel,  and  Ostia  with  all  the  necessaries 


PLASTER  CAST  OF  QUEEN  ELENA'S  DISCOBOLUS 

Completed  by  the  addition  of  the  arm  from  Florence,  the  head  from  the  Louvre, 
and  the  feet  from  the  British  Mwseum 


OF -HE 

UNIVERs/Ty 


OF 


THE    LAND    OF    PLINY   THE   YOUNGER       327 

of  life.  However,  for  a  man  of  simple  habits  the  nearest 
village  [the  Vicus  Augustanus]  is  equally  useful ;  it  con- 
tains among  other  commodities  three  public  baths,  of 
which  I  avail  myself  whenever  I  happen  tor  reach  the 
villa  unexpected  and  I  have  no  time  to  wait  for  the 
furnace  to  be  lighted.  The  whole  coast  is  lined  with 
villas,  some  adjoining  one  another,  some  separated  by 
gardens.  Seen  from  the  water  it  looks  like  a  city  many 
miles  long." 

The  largest  and  best  of  the  three  baths  of  which  Pliny 
was  an  occasional  patron  has  just  been  excavated,  and 
although  it  appears  to  have  been  repaired  and  slightly 
altered  in  the  second  and  third  centuries,  its  main  halls 
and  basins  date  from  before  the  age  of  Pliny.  Here  we 
have,  therefore,  a  building  which  has  echoed  with  his 
voice  and  beheld  his  presence,  pavements  which  have 
been  trodden  by  his  feet,  marble  benches  on  which  he 
has  sat,  and  basins  and  piscinae  in  which  he  has  bathed. 
Had  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  been  the  first  to  enter  this 
beautiful  building,  many  more  details  could  have  been 
made  clear,  and  many  works  of  art  could  have  been 
recovered  from  its  richly  decorated  halls.  Unfortunately 
these  thermae  have  given  shelter  to  a  mediaeval  colony 
of  farmers  or  wood-cutters,  and  they  must  have  burned 
into  lime  whatever  pieces  of  marble  fell  into  their  hands. 
The  illustrations  on  p.  329  represent  some  of  the  few 
bits  of  statuary  which  have  escaped  the  kiln,  and  upon 
which  the  eye  of  Pliny  may  have  rested  while  he  was 
waiting  for  his  bath. 

The  journey  from  Laurentum  to  Antium  by  Lavi- 
nium  (Pratica  di  Mare),  Ardea,  Aphrodisium  (Campo 
Jemini),  Invicastrum  (L' Incastro),  and  the  sulphur 
springs  (caldanae)  is  equally  delightful  whether  you  per- 


328    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

form  it  riding  a  half-wild  Maremma  pony  along  the 
Via  Severiana,  or  hugging  the  shore  in  a  boat.  I  have 
done  it  in  both  ways,  more  than  once,  while  camping  out 
at  the  Foce  dell'  Incastro  with  a  sportsman  friend.  No 
pen  of  an  enthusiast  can  describe  in  a  befitting  manner 
the  beauty  of  the  old  kingdom  of  Turnus,  especially 
that  section  of  it  now  broken  up  into  the  farm  lands 
of  Fossignano,  Buonriposo,  and  La  Cogna.  The  valley 
of  the  Fosso  della  Moletta,  which  forms  the  highway 
between  the  station  of  Carrocceto  on  the  Anzio  line  and 
the  coast,  is  as  beautiful  and  well  timbered  and  watered 
as  an  English  park,  stocked  with  untamed  cattle ;  and 
it  is  archseologically  interesting,  as  the  track  leads  the 
wanderer  past  the  sites  of  Longula,  conquered  by  the 
consul  Postumius  Auruncus,  b.  c.  493,  and  the  famous 
mediaeval  castle  of  Veprosa  (Castrum  Nave),  once 
owned  by  the  monks  of  S.  Alessio  on  the  Aventine,  and 
later  by  the  Frangipane,  the  Annibaldi,  and  the  Cesarini. 
I  remember  once  leaving  the  hospitable  hut  of  my 
friend  at  the  break  of  day  in  company  with  the  late 
Dr.  Nevin,  bent  on  a  ride  to  Torre  Caldana,  where  a 
boat  was  waiting  to  convey  us  to  Anzio.  Never  had  the 
breath  of  the  wilderness  felt  more  refreshing  or  its  spirit 
seemed  more  inspiring  than  at  that  early  hour  of  the 
morning  when  the  first  rays  of  sunshine  filtering  through 
the  foliage,  heavy  with  drops  of  dew,  warmed  the  blood 
"  like  a  draught  of  generous  wine."  The  Via  Severiana, 
the  track  of  which  we  were  following  eastward  through 
the  woodlands  of  Torre  San  Lorenzo  and  Torre  Sant' 
Anastasia,  is  too  much  overgrown  by  sylvan  vegetation 
to  offer  archaeological  attraction,  save  where  its  pave- 
ment has  been  left  undisturbed  here  and  there  by  mod- 
ern road-menders.  It  appears  worn  into  deep  ruts  by 
the  passage  of  vehicles,  proof  of  the  intensity  of  travel 


THE   LAND   OF   PLINY   THE   YOUNGER        329 

and  traffic  which  in  times  gone  by  enlivened  this  now 
silent  coast.  The  grooves,  as  in  the  British  Watling 
Street,  are  a  little  more  than  four  feet  six  and  a  half 
inches  apart.  '*  The  wheel  marks  in  Pompeii  are  exactly 
this  distance  from  one  to  another,  and  this  is  the  gauge 
of  English  railways."  This  assertion  of  Dr.  Bruce  in 
his  **  Handbook  of  the  Roman  Wall  "  is  not  quite  exact, 
for  the  standard  gauge  is  four  feet  eight  and  one  half 


Fragments  of  statuary  discovered  in  Pliny's  Baths  at  the  Vicus  Augustanus 
(From  photographs  by  Gino  Ferrari) 


inches ;  but  it  comes  near  enough  the  mark  to  give  weight 
to  the  conjecture  that  the  gauge  of  English  railways 
was  determined  by  the  mean  width  of  the  wheel  tracks 
of  the  chariots  and  forage  carts  which  frequented  the 
camps  of  the  Roman  wall. 

The  forests  which  fringe  the  coast  between  Ostia  and 


330    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

Terracina,  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  and  from 
Porto  to  Palo  westward,  until  lately  were  considered  as 
highly  beneficial  to  Rome.  Hence  their  name  of  "  Boschi 
sacri  del  Lazio, "  and  hence  the  vigilant  care  with  which 
the  government  of  the  Popes  watched  over  their  welfare. 
This  popular  belief  in  the  anti-malarious  properties  of 
the  Boschi  sacri  is  thus  upheld  by  an  English  lover  of 
the  Campagna  at  the  beginning  of  last  century:  "As 
most  of  the  winds  blow  at  no  considerable  height,  and 
pass  the  woods  of  Ariano,  La  Fajola,  Astura,  Nettuno^ 
Ostia,  and  Monterano,  they  leave  on  their  passage  a 
great  portion  of  the  noxious  exhalations  and  malignant 
vapors  and  become  much  more  pure  before  they  arrive 
at  Rome.  .  .  .  On  this  account,  though,  as  is  well  known, 
the  cypress,  oak,  chestnut,  and  some  other  trees  exhale 
vapors  which  are  not  esteemed  salubrious  (!),  there  are 
many  plants,  shrubs,  and  trees,  native  of  this  soil,  which 
contribute  greatly  by  their  effluvia  to  the  purification  of 
the  atmosphere,  and  even  those  above  mentioned  inter- 
cept and  absorb  much  of  the  mephitic  air,  on  account  of 
their  high  and  thick  foliage. "  ^  The  same  author  thus 
speaks  of  the  winds  and  breezes  prevailing  on-  this 
coast:  "For  a  considerable  part  of  the  year  the  pre-^ 
dominating  winds  are  the  Sirocco  and  the  Tramontana  ; 
the  first  oppressive  and  relaxing,  the  other  delicious  ta 
people  of  good  health.  Its  elastic  quality  animates  all 
nature  and  clears  the  sky  from  every  cloud  and  vapor, 
and  brings  the  minutest  and  farthest  details  of  the  land- 
scape into  clear  relief;  but  in  winter  it  is  rather  danger- 
ous. Saliceti,  the  physician  to  Pope  Pius  VI,  used  to  say, 
'Scirocco  e  un  amico  noioso;  tramontana  e  nemica 
micidiale.'  The  ponente  or  west  wind,  which  rises  about 
10  or  11  A.  M.  in  the  late  spring  and  summer  months,  and 
^  Description  o/Latiuviy  p.  5. 


THE    LAND    OF    PLINY   THE    YOUNGER 


331 


dies  away  towards  sunset,  deserves  the  character  it  had 
amongst  the  ancient  poets.  Their  Zephyrs  and  Fa- 
vonian  breezes  have  lost  none  of  their  charms,  and  it 
requires  the  pen  of  a  Virgil  or  Tibullus  to  describe  the 
beauty  of  the  climate  when  it  is  predominant,  wafting 


Half  wild  buffaloes  sporting  in  the  waters  of  the  river  Numicius  near  Aphrodisium 

(La  Fossa) 

as  it  does  out  of  its  dewy  wings  the  scent  of  the  sea  and 
the  perfumes  of  aromatic  meadows." 

The  promontory  of  Torre  Caldana,  where  we  were  to 
leave  our  ponies  and  set  sail  for  Antium,  is  supposed  to 
have  once  belonged  to  Maecenas,  who  erected  a  statue  of 
Augustus  at  a  shrine  by  the  sulphur  springs.  The  whole 
promontory  is  strewn  with  antique  marbles  and  terra- 
cottas, mostly  vessels  used  for  the  distillation  and  puri- 
fication of  sulphur;  but  I  have  found  also  seams  of 


332    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

votive  objects  which  prove  the  popularity  of  these 
springs  from  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest  of  Antium 
to  the  abandonment  of  the  coast  stations  in  the  sixth 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  water  of  the  Cal- 
danse,  which,  as  the  name  implies,  must  once  have  been 
warm,  was  brought  to  the  imperial  thermse  at  Antium 
by  means  of  an  aqueduct,  remains  of  which  have  been 
found  along  the  coast  by  local  antiquarians. 

Owing  to  the  erosion  of  the  coast,  some  of  the  springs, 
once  well  inland  and  overshadowed  by  the  forest,  now 
bubble  out  of  the  sandy  floor  of  the  sea,  at  a  consid- 
erable distance  from  the  shore,  a  phenomenon  by  no 
means  strange  in  these  volcanic  regions,  and  which 
brings  to  our  memory  a  curious  incident  connected 
with  Cicero's  life  at  Pozzuoli.  The  villa  stood  so  close 
to  the  east  end  of  Lake  Lucrinus  that,  while  writing  the 
*'  Academica, "  the  orator  could  see  through  the  Cyzicene 
window  the  fish  sporting  in  its  clear  waters.  It  is  related 
that  on  the  7th  of  December  of  the  year  46  b.  c,  at  the 
very  moment  of  the  murder  of  Cicero  at  Formise,  hot 
springs  burst  out  in  that  part  of  the  gardens  which  came 
nearest  to  the  shore;  and  these  springs,  having  been 
found  beneficial  for  affections  of  the  eye,  became  cele- 
brated under  the  name  of  Aquae  Ciceronianse. 

The  site  of  the  villa  was  occupied  in  the  middle  ages 
by  a  hamlet  called  Tripergola.  Here  the  kings  of  Anjou 
built  a  shooting  lodge,  the  royal  kennels,  and  a  bathing 
establishment  capable  of  accommodating  thirty  patients, 
the  Aquae  Ciceronianae  having  retained  through  the 
lapse  of  so  many  centuries  their  healing  virtue  against 
ophthalmia.  All  these  interesting  and  pleasant  memo- 
rials and  landmarks  were  destined  to  disappear  on  the 
29th  of  September  of  the  year  1538.  The  dawn  of  that 
fatal  day  was  marked  by  an  outburst  of  geysers ;  twelve 


THE    LAND    OF   NERO 


333 


The  sulphur  springs  of  the  Aquae  Caldanae  on  the  Volscian  coast  five  miles 
west  of  Antium 

hours  later  the  Monte  Nuovo  was  formed,  a  cone  456 
feet  high,  in  the  centre  of  which  we  can  still  behold 
the  eruptive  flue,  inclosed  by  masses  of  pumice  stone, 
trachyte,  and  tufa. 

After  a  delightful  rest  at  Torre  Caldana  we  set  sail 
for  Cape  Antium  (La  Punta  dell'  Arco  Muto),  the  dim 
outline  of  which  appeared  in  the  morning  haze  five 
miles  to  the  east.  This  part  of  the  coast  is  higher  and 
more  picturesque  than  the  sandy  beaches  of  Laurentum 
and  Lavinium,  the  clay  and  sandstone  cliffs  being 
fringed  with  clusters  of  arbutus  and  myrtle,  and  each 
headland  being  crowned  with  the  remains  of  a  villa. 
Impelled  by  a  gentle  breeze  our  boat  ran  eastward 
through  waters  as  clear  as  crystal,  showing  every  detail 
of  the  uneven  bottom  thirty  feet  below.    So  perfect  was 


334    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

their  transparency  that  we  were  able  to  test  for  the  first 
time  the  accuracy  of  the  tradition  current  among  the 
local  fishermen,  about  the  existence  of  art  treasures' 
atong  this  shallow  shbre.  The  treasures  are  not  great; 
at  least  we  saw  only  a  number  of  columns  of  white  mar- 
ble half  buried  in  a  patch  of  sand,  amongst  quivering 
masses  of  weed,  coral,  and  sea  lilies,  which  seemed  to 
rise  ahead  of  the  prow  and  touch  the  keel  and  then  sink 
slowly  astern  in  the  boat's  soundless  wake.  It  is  prob- 
able that  those  caverns  of  swaying  submarine  vegeta- 
tion, in  the  recesses  of  which  shoals  of  fish,  frightened 
by  our  approaching  shadow,  were  seeking  shelter,  con- 
tain works  of  a  higher  value. 

There  is  a  popular  tradition  that  the  villas  on  the 
coast  between  Ardea  and  Astura  were  built  by  the 
Romans  out  at  sea,  because  the  remains  of  their  foun- 
dations are  actually  seen  at  some  distance  from  the 
shore.  The  tradition  is  wrong,  save  in  two  or  three 
cases.  As  a  rule,  all  the  villas  of  the  Latin  and  Volscian 
coast  were  built  on  the  edges  of  cliffs  and  headlands  of 
clay  and  sandstone,  which  cannot  withstand  the  action 
of  the  waves  unless  protected  at  the  base  by  artificial 
means,  such  as  blocks  of  concrete,  palisades,  and  the 
like.  And  these  means  of  defence  must  be  kept  in  a 
state  of  efficiency,  because  the  least  negligence  might 
bring  serious  disaster  to  the  building  above.  Cliffs  and 
headlands  have  been  washed  away  since  the  inroads  of 
pirates  and  barbarians  made  the  villa  owners  abandon 
the  coast  and  seek  refuge  within  the  walls  of  the  city; 
but  great  masses  of  masonry  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea  still  mark  the  site  of  the  old  palaces,  sometimes 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  shore,  sometimes  at  a 
distance  of  six  hundred  feet,  as  is  the  case  with  certain 
blocks  seen  under  favorable  circumstances  of  light  and 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO 


335 


sea  due  west  of  the  pro- 
montory deir  Arco  Scuro. 
There  is  no  doubt  that 
what  the  fishermen  say 
about  lost  treasures  is 
true,  and  that,  if  proper 
search  could  be  made, 
many  works  of  art  would 
be  recovered.  In  fact,  my 
earl iest 


Part  of  an  architectural  relief  ^ 


recollection  of  Antium  is  connected  with 
the  finding  of  seventeen  bronze  coins 
and  a  piece  of  gold  chain  in  the  narrow 
ledge  of  sand  under  Nero's  palace.  Be- 
tween March  and  June  of  last  year 
(1908)  four  columns  were  raised  from 
the  bottom  of  Nero's  harbor,  near  the 
rock  named  Lo  Sconciglio,  one  of  which 
was  thirteen  feet  long  and  in  a  perfect 
state. 

In  the  time  of  Pope  Benedict  XIII 
(1724-1730)  the  bronze  vase  of  Mith- 
ridates,  now  in  the  Palazzo  dei  Conser- 
vatori,  was  likewise  rescued  from  the 
bottom  of  the  sea.  This  beautiful  speci- 
men of  chaste  Greek  workmanship  has 
an  inscription  around  the  rim  in  punc- 
tured characters,  stating  that  it  was  a 
present  from  Mithridates  Eupator,  the 
sixth  and  most  famous  King  of  Pontus 
of  that  name,  to  a  gymnasium  of  the 
Eupatorides.     Where    such    a  gymna- 

^  Objects  recovered  from  the  wreck  of  a  Greek  ship  on  the  coast  of 
Numidia. 


The  Dionysiac  Her- 
ma  by  Boethus  of 
Chalcedon  ^ 


336    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

sium  was  placed  it  is  impossible  to  say ;  probably,  as  John 
Ward  has  suggested,  in  the  island  of  Delos,^  whence  a 
Roman  governor  or  a  Roman  merchant  must  have  re- 
moved it  about  Nero's  time.  The  finding  of  this  relic  in 
the  most  fashionable  seaside  resort  of  imperial  times 
cannot  fail  to  bring  back  the  recollection  of  one  of  the 
most  anxious  periods  which  the  Roman  Commonwealth 
was  fated  to  pass  through.  I  refer  to  the  campaign  of 
88  B.  c,  in  which  Mithridates  drove  Ariobarzanes  out 
of  Cappadocia,  and  Nicomedes  out  of  Bithynia,  both 
being  allies  of  the  Romans,  and  forced  the  Romans 
themselves  out  of  the  province  of  Asia.  During  the 
winter  of  that  memorable  year  orders  were  issued  by 
him  to  all  the  cities  of  Asia  for  the  massacre  at  a  given 
hour  of  every  Italian  who  was  to  be  found  within  their 
walls.  So  hateful  had  the  conquerors  rendered  them- 
selves to  the  natives,  that  eighty  thousand  of  them  are 
said  to  have  perished  in  these  "Sicilian  Vespers"  of 
88  B.  c.  I  wonder  if  the  removal  of  Mithridates'  vase 
from  the  gymnasium  of  the  Eupatorides  to  the  one 
erected  by  Nero  at  Antium  was  intentional,  or  simply 
an  issue  of  chance.  It  is  said  that  the  blocks  of  Greek 
marble  out  of  which  the  sphinxes  decorating  the  hemi- 
cycles  of  the  present  Piazza  del  Popolo  were  carved  in 
the  time  of  Pius  VII,  were  discovered  together  with  the 
bronze  vase. 

The  possibilities  in  this  line  of  submarine  research 
are  indeed  unlimited,  because  wherever  ancient  vessels 
have  sunk  in  a  moderate  depth  of  water  their  cargoes 
may  still  be  found  intact,  or  but  little  damaged.  Such 
was  the  case  with  the  wine  ship  discovered  at  Astura, 
of  which  I  have  spoken  in  "Ancient  Rome,"  p.  253. 

^  Compare  Corpus  Inscr.  Grcec,  2278,  and  Homolle,  Bulletin  de  corres- 
pondance  Hellenique,  vol.  viii,  p.  103. 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  337 

It  probably  belonged  to  the  class  of  the  *'Sorrentini," 
which  even  now  ply  between  the  Bay  of  Naples  and 
the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  laden  with  the  heavy  wine  of 
Foria  d'  Ischia.  Its  hulk  was  filled  with  amphorae 
cemented  into  a  coralliferous  mass,  from  which  only  a 
few  specimens  could  be  detached  unbroken.  Such  also 
was  the  case  with  the  Greek  ship  laden  with  works  of 


Eros  as  a  laiiip-staiul,  before  and  after  tlie  process  of  cleansing;  recovered  from 
the  wreck  of  a  Greek  ship  on  tlie  coast  of  Numidia 

art  in  bronze  and  marble,  found  in  the  month  of  De- 
cember, 1908,  opposite  the  harbor  of  Mahdia  on  the 
coast  of  Tunisia,  between  Sousa  and  Sfax.  A  man 
diving  for  sponges  was  brought  to  the  surface  in  a  state 
of  abject  terror,  having  beheld  forms  of  sleeping  giants 
on  the  deck  of  a  mysterious  craft.  The  legend  grew 
and  was  spread  abroad,  and  reached  the  ears  of  the 


338     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

conservators  of  Tunisian  antiquities.  The  "sleeping 
giants"  were  raised  to  the  surface,  and  the  ship  was 
subjected  to  a  careful  investigation.  It  measured  about 
ninety  feet  in  length  and  twenty-five  in  breadth,  and 
must  have  been  wrecked  some  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  with  its  cargo  of  bronzes  and  marbles  destined  for 
a  public  building  of  some  African  colony,  or  the  villa 
of  a  wealthy  colonist.  There  was  a  bronze  statue  of 
Eros,  said  to  be  a  replica  of  a  work  of  Praxiteles;  an- 
other of  the  same  subject  designed  for  a  lamp-stand; 
and  also  a  herma  or  pillar  ending  with  the  head  of  Dio- 
nysus. This  last  work  bore  the  signature  of  the  artist 
Boethus  of  Chalcedon,  who  flourished  in  the  second 
century  before  Christ.  It  is  my  firm  belief  that  in  the 
course  of  the  dredging  operations  which  will  shortly 
be  undertaken  at  Anzio,  to  restore  Nero's  harbor  to 
its  former  state,  many  objects  of  value  will  be  brought 
to  the  surface,  to  give  evidence  of  Nero's  liberality 
towards  his  native  place. 

Antium,  the  head  city  and  chief  port  of  the  clan  of 
the  Volscians,  came  into  conflict  with  Rome  as  early 
as  the  age  of  Coriolanus.  The  great  earthworks  erected 
by  the  natives  on  the  land  side,  in  preparation  for  the 
impending  struggle  for  independence  and  freedom  of 
trade  which  was  in  store  for  them,  are  still  perfect. 
They  consist  of  a  ditch  or  artificial  valley  150  feet  wide, 
50  feet  deep,  and  nearly  two  miles  long,  which  furnished 
material  for  an  embankment  on  the  inner  side,  with 
flanking  walls  of  stone  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  gates. 
The  view  from  the  top  of  this  embankment,  at  its 
highest  point  near  the  Lanuvine  gate,  extends  over  land 
and  sea  as  far  as  the  Alban  and  Volscian  mountains  to 
the  east,  and  the  promontory  of  Circe  and  the  island  of 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO 


The  great  earthworks  raised  by  the  Volscians  for  the  defence  of  Antium  on  the 

land  side 


Pontia  to  the  south  and  west.  Similar  earthworks  have 
been  described  at  Satricum  (Le  Ferriere  di  Conca),  at 
Ardea,  and  in  Rome  itself,  where  the /055a  and  the  agger 
of  Servius  Tullius  made  the  city  impregnable  at  the 
most  dangerous  part  of  its  defensive  lines.  The  arti- 
ficial glen  encircling  Antium,  now  overgrown  with 
clusters  of  myrtle,  tamarisk,  and  genista,  affords  as 
enticing  a  walk  as  the  student  of  prehistoric  civiliza- 
tion could  wish  to  find  along  this  coast.  The  knolls 
which  rise  on  the  right  of  the  path  have  been  the  scene 
of  many  a  gallant  struggle,  but  the  Volscians,  being 
physically  at  least  an  inferior  race,  were  doomed  to 
succumb.  Antium  was  captured  by  Camillus  and  C. 
Msenius  Nepos  in  337  b.  c,  and  the  rostra  of  their  ships 
were  hung  in  the  Forum. 

After  a  period  of  depopulation  of  nearly  three  cen- 
turies, the  mildness  of  its  climate,  the  beauty  of  its 


340    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

scenery,  and  the  fecundity  of  its  soil  began  to  be  ap- 
preciated by  the  Roman  villa-builders  of  the  Augustan 
age.  Atticus,  Cicero,  Lucullus,  Maecenas,  Brutus,  and 
Cassius,  the  pioneers  of  Roman  fashionable  emigration, 
dotted  the  coast  with  exquisite  structures,  the  remains  of 
which  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  bend  of  the  bay  near 
Nettuno.  Antium,  however,  is  essentially  a  city  of  Nero. 
Here  he  was  born  on  December  15,  a.  d.  37;  here  the 
news  was  brought  to  him  of  the  outbreak  of  the  fire 
of  July,  65 ;  here  he  led  Poppsea  Sabina  to  be  confined 
ubi  ipse  generatus  erat,  and  here  the  child,  born  in  the 
palace  by  the  sea  in  the  winter  of  61,  was  taken  away 
from  her  parents  when  only  four  months  old.  The  grief 
of  the  citizens  knew  no  bounds;  the  Senate  came  in  a 
body  from  Rome  to  offer  their  condolences,  and  passed 
a  resolution  for  the  erection  of  a  memorial,  which  must 
have  vied  in  magnificence  with  that  of  the  Gens  Julia 
at  Bovillse.  Nero  is  still  the  popular  hero,  and  the 
subject  of  many  legends  in  the  folk-lore  of  Antium. 
Nowhere  does  one  feel  more  disposed  to  forgive  his  mis- 
deeds and  to  admit  extenuating  circumstances  than  in 
this  city,  which  he  beautified  and  cherished  above  all 
other  imperial  residences.  Nowhere  can  one  better 
appreciate  his  worth  as  an  artist  and  as  an  engineer. 
The  following  considerations  may  give  an  additional 
interest  to  the  visit  which  none  of  my  readers  should 
omit  to  pay  to  lovely  Anzio. 

During  the  long  period  in  which  I  have  taken  an 
active  interest  in  antiquarian  research  some  two  thou- 
sand pieces  of  sculpture  have  been  dug  out  of  the  soil 
of  Rome  and  the  Campagna,  including  statues,  busts, 
heads,  bas-reliefs,  friezes,  and  sarcophagi.  Busts  and 
portrait  heads   are  Roman  works  of  Imperial   times; 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  341 

statues  and  bas-reliefs  are  but  reproductions  of  lost 
Greek  originals,  the  existence  of  which  would  otherwise 
have  been  known  only  from  the  descriptions  of  Pliny 
and  Pausanias.  Their  discovery  is  always  welcome,  be- 
cause, no  matter  how  defective  the  replica  may  be,  we 
can  gather  from  it  some  conception  of  the  original  type 
created  by  Phidias,  Praxiteles,  Scopas,  Lysippus,  Poly- 
cletus,  and  other  such  masters  of  the  golden  age.    What 


The  great  ditch  excavated  by  the  Rutuli  for  the  defence  of  Ardea  on  the 

land  side 

should  we  know,  for  instance,  about  the  Apoxyomenos 
of  Lysippus  were  it  not  for  the  accidental  finding  of  a 
marble  copy  in  the  year  1849  near  the  church  of  Santa 
Cecilia  in  Trastevere  ?  The  same  considerations  apply 
to  the  Hermes  of  Polycletus,  a  copy  of  which  has  just 
been  discovered  in  the  foundations  of  a  private  house 
near  the  Ponte  Margherita ;  to  the  Amazon  of  the  same 
master,  a  copy  of  which,  found  in  the  Villa  Aldobrandini 


342    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

at  Frascati,  is  now  exhibited  in  the  Braccio  Nuovo  at 
the  Vatican;  to  the  Dionysus  of  Euphranor,  whose 
replica  I  discovered  in  1881  in  Hadrian's  villa;  and  to 
scores  of  other  subjects  which  are  daily  unearthed  from 
the  archaeological  strata  of  our  land. 

Where,  then,  have  the  original  Greek  masterpieces 
vanished,  which  Roman  conquerors  and  Roman  em- 
perors are  known  to  have  removed  by  the  thousand 
from  Magna  Grsecia,  Sicily,  Greece,  and  Asia  Minor, 
and  to  have  carried  home  as  spoils  of  war,  or  else  by 
theft  or  by  purchase  ?  There  is  no  exaggeration  in  say- 
ing that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  after 
Christ,  Rome  contained  more  works  of  the  great  masters 
than  could  be  seen  on  the  shores  of  the  ^gean  Sea. 
Each  of  the  Roman  temples,  forums,  basilicas,  baths, 
palaces,  and  villas  was  a  museum  in  itself.  Two  hundred 
and  sixty-one  pieces  of  sculpture  or  pictures  in  mosaic 
have  already  been  dug  out  from  Hadrian's  villa.  Gio- 
vanni Antonio  Riccy  published  in  1802  a  list  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  works  of  art  excavated  in  the  imperial 
domain  of  Roma  Vecchia.^  Their  number  has  since 
doubled.  In  1884  Luigi  Boccanera  found,  in  a  couple 
of  days,  seventeen  statues  and  busts  in  the  peristyle 
of  Voconius  Pollio's  villa  at  Marino.  This  as  regards 
quantity. 

As  far  as  quality  is  concerned,  I  can  only  say  that  if 
one  Roman  temple  alone  could  be  reconstructed,  with 
its  artistic  contents,  it  would  cast  into  the  shade  any 
museum  of  the  present  day.  But  where  have  all  these 
treasures  gone.^  How  is  it  that  we  must  consider  our- 
selves lucky  if  we  discover  one  Greek  original  among 
a  thousand  Roman  copies  ?   The  answer  to  this  query 

^  "  Deir  antico  Pago  Lemonio,"  in  Oggi  Roma  Vecchia,  Rome,  Ful- 
goni,  1802,  ch.  xii,  p.  109. 


V^^^^^^^^^^^^Kkfy'" 

iH^I 

1^^^^^^^/^ 

^^'^H 

I^^^^^^^H^B,    j^ 

^^^^Qj^^ 

i""    ^^M 

^>^^^^^H 

I^^^^K^I^: 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^■T  *1^'^ ' 

H 

^^^^^^^^^^B  m 

^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^H 

I^^^^^^^^BBKB*!!^^^'' >  '        ,"''--''4ilMWlHIH|ipi 

PORTRAIT  HEAD  OF  NERO  AT  ABOUT  TWENTY 
Showing  him  a  healthy  and  cheerful  youth 


OF  THE 

OF  ' 

FORNIX 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  345 

cannot  be  easily  given.  The  fact  that  the  majority  of 
statues  imported  from  Greece  were  cast  in  bronze  may 
explain  their  disappearance  to  a  certain  extent,  because 
metal  excited  the  greed  of  the  barbarians  more  than  any 
other  spoils  of  war.  From  a  description  of  Rome  written 
A.  D.  546,  by  Zacharias,  a  Byzantine  historian.  Bishop 
of  Mytilene  in  the  island  of  Lesbos,  we  gather  that,  to- 
wards the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  of  our  era,  there 
were  still  left  standing  in  public  places  3890  works  of  art 
in  bronze  —  one  third  as  many  as  were  still  kept,  at  that 
time,  in  private  palaces,  gardens,  and  villas.  Of  this 
immense  collection  only  eleven  specimens  have  come 
down  to  us.  But  there  were  marble  originals  as  well, 
which  the  barbarians  despised  and  left  uninjured.  It 
has  been  said  that  they  must  have  perished  in  mediaeval 
lime-kilns.  No  doubt  they  did,  and  by  the  thousand; 
but  why  should  mediaeval  lime-burners  take  special 
pleasure  in  destroying  originals  in  preference  to  Roman 
copies  ?  This  is  the  problem  the  solution  of  which  has 
yet  to  be  found. 

Here  let  me  state  one  fact  which  redeems  to  a  certain 
extent  the  memory  of  Nero,  the  lover  of  Antium:  the 
fact  is  that,  whenever  excavations  have  been  made  in 
grounds  known  to  have  belonged  to  him,  some  genuine 
work  of  a  Greek  master  has  been  sure  to  come  to  light; 
in  other  words,  the  only  chance  we  have  left  of  discov- 
ering lost  masterpieces  is  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
Nero,  and  search  every  building  or  site  that  is  known  to 
have  been  inhabited  by  him,  whether  the  Golden  House 
at  Rome,  or  the  hunting-box  at  Sublaqueum,  or  the  sea 
palace  at  Antium. 

Nero  seems  to  have  been  possessed  of  a  double  nature, 
one  half  of  which  was  kind,  generous,  poetic,  artistic, 
musical,  while  the  other  was  utterly  depraved.    Nothing 


346    WANDERINGS   IN  THE  ROIMAN   CAMPAGNA 

could  show  better  this  contrast  in  his  personality  than 
a  comparison  between  these  two  portrait  busts,  the  first 
taken  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  while  still 
guiltless  of  dissipation,  the  other  after  a  few  years  of 
shocking  depravity.  The  account  given  by  Suetonius 
of  the  first  period  of  his  career  is  quite  charming.  The 
youth  appears  to  have  been  devoted,  body  and  soul,  to 
sport  and  art,  rather  than  to  the  ruling  of  the  Empire. 
He  instituted  a  competition  for  the  championship  of  the 
world  in  music,  in  athletics,  and  in  horsemanship,  to  be 
held  every  fifth  year ;  he  made  recitals  popular,  display- 
ing his  own  talents  in  that  line,  not  only  before  the  court 
assembly,  but  also  in  Pompey's  theatre,  before  seventeen 
thousand  spectators,  representing  all  classes  of  citizens. 
Suetonius  mentions  also  a  naumachia  in  which  the  crews 
of  the  imperial  galleys  fought  against  new  and  wonder- 
ful sea  monsters;  experiments  made  with  an  aeroplane 
or  flying  machine,  which  cost  the  life  of  the  inventor, 
who  was  disguised  as  Icarus ;  the  enacting  ad  vivum  of 
the  most  daring  mythological  scenes ;  a  novel  race  in  the 
circus,  in  which  camels  harnessed  to  the  quadrigce  took 
the  place  of  horses.  In  these  sportive  meetings  Nero 
gained  favor  with  the  assembly  by  throwing  among  the 
ranks  of  the  senators,  of  the  patricians,  and  of  the 
equestrians,  as  well  as  among  the  populace,  handfuls  of 
missilia,  that  is  to  say,  of  ivory  labels  inscribed  with  a 
number,  corresponding  to  a  prize  to  which  the  holder 
of  the  tessera  was  entitled.  The  prizes  included  grain, 
clothing,  objects  of  gold  and  silver,  gems,  pearls,  pic- 
tures, bronzes,  hunters  and  chargers,  slaves,  houses, 
wild  animals  tamed  into  pets,  farms  and  wheat  lands, 
yachts,  and  whole  islands. 

When  the  wicked  side  of  Nero's  personality  began 
to  make  itself  manifest,  the  courtiers  remembered  the 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  347 

prophecy  uttered  by  his  own  father,  Domitius  Aheno- 
barbus,  on  the  day  of  his  birth:  "Do  not  rejoice,"  he 
had  said  to  them;  **for  what  can  be  born  of  Agrippina 
and  myself  but  a  vicious  offspring  destined  to  do  great 
evil  to  mankind  ?"    And  yet  even  in  the  worst  moments 


Portrait  head  of  Nero  at  about  twenty-six,  showing  effects  of 
excesses  and  dissipation 

of  his  career  Nero  remained  an  artist  and  a  builder 
without  rivals,  despising  anything  short  of  perfection, 
and  never  attempting  a  work  of  public  utility  unless 
fraught  with   difficulties   which  would  certainly  have 


348    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

deterred  a  less  daring  schemer.  If  we  recollect  that  in 
the  short  period  of  his  reign  he  rebuilt  the  greater  part 
of  the  city,  with  his  own  Golden  House  as  a  centre; 
that  he  doubled  its  water-supply,  provided  it  with  a 
swimming-pond  as  large  as  a  lake,  free  bathing  accom- 
modations and  two  great  sea  harbors ;  that  he  attempted 
to  establish  an  inland  water-way  between  Naples  and 
Rome;  that  he  succeeded  in  opening  the  Corinthian 
Canal ;  that  he  laid  out  an  Alpine  park  among  the  crags 
of  Subiaco,  and  a  sea  garden  at  Antium;  and  that  he 
enriched  these  places  with  the  choicest  chef  d'ceuvres  of 
Greek  art,  —  I  believe  we  are  justified  in  regarding  these 
as  extenuating  circumstances. 

I  have  already  described  the  Golden  House  in  "An- 
cient Rome,"  p.  124,  and  the  artificial  lake  in  "Ruins 
and  Excavations,"  p.  369.  The  harbor  of  Rome  (Por- 
tus  Augusti),  begun  by  Claudius  and  completed  by 
Nero,  inclosed  an  area  of  170  acres,  sheltered  by  jetties 
and  a  breakwater,  with  a  depth  of  sixteen  feet  and  a 
quay  frontage  of  2600  yards.  The  harbor  of  Antium, 
built  for  the  use  of  the  Imperial  galleys  during  the  stay 
of  the  court  at  that  seaside  resort,  is  still  practically  in 
use,  although  much  damaged  and  disfigured  in  the  time 
of  Pope  Innocent  XII  (1691-1700).  The  piers  with 
which  he  sheltered  the  harbor  are  still  extant,  as  fine 
examples  of  hydraulic  architecture  as  can  be  found 
on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  They  are  still  en- 
cased in  their  original  frames  or  cradles  of  stout  oak 
beams,  which  have  hardened  to  the  consistency  of  iron. 
The  piers  are  4300  feet  long  and  thirty  wide,  and  reach 
a  depth  of  forty. 

The  ship  canal  between  the  bay  of  Naples  and  Rome 
is  thus  described  by  Suetonius:  "Nero  began  also  a 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  349 

water-way  between  the  lake  of  Avernus  and  the  Tiber, 
so  that  ships  might  go  from  one  place  to  the  other  with- 
out putting  to  sea:  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  in 
length,  and  wide  enough  to  allow  the  sailing  of  two 
quinqueremes  abreast.  For  carrying  on  this  and  other 
schemes,  he  ordered  that  prisoners  and  convicts  from 
all  parts  of  the  Empire  should  be  brought  into  Italy,  and 
that  even  those  deserving  capital  punishment  should  be 
made  to  work  on  these  undertakings." 

Tacitus  gives  fuller  particulars:  "The  designers  and 
directors  of  his  works  were  Severus  and  Celer,  whose 
genius  and  ambition  led  them  to  attempt  things  impos- 
sible by  their  nature,  and  thus  to  waste  the  treasure  of 
the  prince.  They  had,  in  addition,  undertaken  to  make 
a  navigable  canal  from  Avernus  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 
to  be  carried  along  a  barren  shore  and  through  moun- 
tains which  lie  across  the  line,  and  where  no  water  is 
found  except  in  the  Pontine  district.  The  rest  is  rock 
or  dry  soil.  Even  had  the  project  been  practicable,  the 
labor  would  have  been  intolerable,  giving  no  adequate 
results.  But  Nero  as  a  lover  of  the  impossible  was  at 
the  greatest  pains  to  perforate  the  mountains  nearest 
to  Avernus,  and  to  this  day  there  remain  traces  of  the 
abortive  scheme." 

Tacitus  refers  obviously  to  the  tunnel  bored  in  the 
direction  of  Licola,  known  locally  as  the  Grotta  di  Pace, 
from  the  Spaniard  Pedro  da  Paz,  who  first  found  and 
explored  it  in  1507,  while  shooting  on  the  northern 
shores  of  Lake  Avernus.  A  deep  cutting,  not  unlike 
that  of  the  Culebra  on  the  Panama  Canal,  was  begun  at 
the  same  time  through  the  ridge  of  Amyclse,  near  the 
bay  of  Gaeta,  where  the  Csecuban,  the  king  of  Italian 
wines,  was  grown.  Nero  ruined  this  prosperous  district 
forever,  and  on  the  tables  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  the 


850     WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

place  of  the  lost  Csecuban  was  thenceforth  taken  by 
another  brand,  the  Setinian,  grown  on  the  border  of  the 
Pontine  marshes,  near  the  present  village  of  Sezze. 

From  this  brief  sketch  of  Nero's  engineering  feats  the 
reader  must  already  have  gathered  that  he  was  not 
only  a  daring  and  reckless  builder  and  a  bold  defier  of 
natural  difficulties,  but  an  artist  as  well.  Compare,  for 
instance,  the  piers  inclosing  his  harbors  of  Ostia  and 
Antium  with  the  jetties  and  breakwaters  of  our  own 
times,  —  clumsy,  massive  structures,  with  only  hydraulic 
cranes,  coal-tips,  or  grain  elevators  to  break  the  mono- 
tony of  the  line,  and  old  guns  for  the  mooring  of  ships. 
In  Nero's  work  we  find  the  mooring-rings  cut  in  marble 
or  cast  in  bronze  in  the  shape  of  a  lion's  mouth  or  of  a 
Medusa's  head,  and  the  mooring-posts  formed  by  ex- 
quisitely carved  granite  pillars,  on  the  surface  of  which 
inscriptions  in  praise  of  the  Emperor  were  engraved. 
We  enter  our  docks. through  an  iron  gate;  the  ancients 
entered  through  a  triumphal  arch,  such  as  the  one  still 
standing  on  the  eastern  pier  of  the  port  of  Ancona.  The 
view  of  the  harbor  of  Ostia,  with  its  colossal  statues, 
its  triumphal  bronze  chariots  drawn  by  four  bronze 
elephants,  its  lighthouse  two  hundred  feet  high,  built 
in  imitation  of  the  Pharos  at  Alexandria,  its  groups  of 
bronze  Tritons  turning  on  pivots  so  as  to  indicate  the 
direction  of  the  wind,  its  watch-towers  or  semaphores, 
from  which  the  approach  of  incoming  vessels  was  an- 
nounced, and  other  such  particulars,  can  be  studied 
in  two  contemporary  records,  —  the  sarcophagus  of 
Philocyrius,  now  in  the  vestibule  of  the  Vaccari  palace, 
37  Via  del  Tritone,  and  a  bas-relief  in  the  Torlonia 
Museum,  of  which  I  have  given  a  reproduction  in 
"Ancient  Rome,"  p.  247. 

Where,  however,   Nero's  artistic  soul  reveals  itself 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  351 

most  forcibly  is  in  the  arrangement  of  his  sylvan  retreat 
at  Subiaeo.    Roman  villa-builders,  as  a  rule,  showed  an 


One  of  Niobe's  sons,  from  Nero's  villa  at  Sublaqueum 
(Museo  Nazionale  alle  Terme) 

absolute  disregard  of  natural  beauty.  Stiffness  and  con- 
ventionality were  their  characteristics.  No  tree  or 
shrub  was  allowed  to  grow  in  its  own  way,  the  shears 
of  the  gardeners  being  always  ready  to  force  it  into 


352    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

absurd  shapes.  The  paths  were  shut  in  by  walls  of  box 
or  laurel,  with  windows,  doors,  and  niches  imitating  the 
architecture  of  palaces.  Nero,  first  and  last  among  the 
Roman  rulers,  conceived  the  notion  of  the  English  park. 
He  selected  a  wild  gorge  of  the  Apennines  above 
Subiaco,  through  which  the  river  Anio  forced  its  way, 
leaping  by  three  graceful  falls  into  the  valley  below.  By 
damming  it  thrice  with  dams  two  hundred  feet  high, 
he  created  three  mountain  lakes,  in  the  manner  of  the 
Virginia  Water  at  Windsor,  the  upper  one  being  over 
a  mile  long.  The  lakes  were  shadowed  by  oaks  and 
beeches  and  overhanging  rocks,  in  the  interstices  of 
which  grew  arborescent  ferns.  Two  fishing  lodges,  one 
on  either  side  of  the  glen,  were  connected  by  a  bridge 
spanning  the  abyss  at  a  prodigious  height.  One  of  these 
lodges,  discovered  in  my  presence  in  1886,  under  the 
monastery  of  St.  Benedict,  makes  us  wonder  at  its  sim- 
plicity. But  what  perfection  in  that  simplicity!  What 
exquisite  wall-paintings,  mosaic  pavements,  and  marble 
incrustrations !  We  found  in  the  course  of  the  excava- 
tion only  one  marble  statue;  but  this  statue  was  the 
first  original  Greek  masterpiece  with  which  I  came  in 
contact  in  my  experience  as  an  archaeological  explorer. 
It  represents  one  of  the  sons  of  Niobe,  struck  in  the 
back  by  the  arrow  of  Apollo,  falling  on  his  left  knee, 
and  raising  his  arms  as  if  to  shield  himself  from  an- 
other deadly  missile.  This  beautiful  figure  did  not  stand 
alone,  but  formed  part  of  a  vast  composition,  of  twenty 
or  twenty-four,  including  Niobe,  her  husband,  her 
sons  and  daughters  with  their  tutors  and  governesses, 
grouped  in  a  picturesque  scene,  like  the  compositions 
one  sees  in  the  chapels  of  the  Sacro  Monte  at  Varallo 
or  at  Varese. 

As  I  have  already  remarked  in  Chapter  IV,  none  but 


THE    LAND    OF    NERO  353 

a  millionaire  or  an  emperor  could  have  indulged  in  the 
luxury  of  securing  a  replica  of  these  vast  compositions ; 
and  yet  Nero's  at  Subiaco  is  by  no  means  the  only  one 
known  to  have  existed  in  or  near  Rome.  It  seems  that 
the  prototype  of  all  was  the  one  modelled  by  Scopas 
(or  Praxiteles)  for  the  Sarpedonium  of  Cilicia,  which 
C.  Sosius,  the  friend  of  Mark  Antony,  —  I  do  not  know 
whether  by  honest  or  foul  means,  —  took  possession 
of  and  removed  to  the  temple  of  Apollo  in  Rome.  No 
trace  has  ever  been  found  of  this  original  group:  either 
the  remains  of  the  temple  have  never  yet  been  exca- 
vated, or  else  the  group  must  have  been  removed  to  a 
forum  or  a  bath  or  a  basilica  after  the  closing  of  temples 
ordered  by  Valentinian  in  391.  Leaving  out  of  con- 
sideration stray  pieces  which  are  to  be  seen  scattered  in 
the  Colonna  Palace,  in  the  Villa  Albani,  and  at  Verona, 
Vienna,  Dresden,  etc.,  there  were  in  Rome  at  least  four 
representations  of  the  myth,  —  the  one  just  mentioned, 
the  second  in  the  temple  of  Apollo  on  the  Palatine,  the 
third  in  the  Lamian  gardens,  the  fourth  in  the  gardens 
of  Sallust.  This  last  has  become  quite  lately  the  most 
celebrated  of  all,  from  the  finding  of  one  of  the  un- 
fortunate daughters  under  the  present  dining-room  of 
the  house  where  I  live  and  where  I  am  writing  these 
lines.  The  discovery  took  place  under  the  following  cir- 
cumstances. 

On  the  morning  of  June  4th  the  director  of  the  work 
on  the  house  then  in  course  of  construction  notified  me 
of  the  finding  of  a  crypt,  or  underground  corridor, 
thirty-five  feet  below  the  level  of  the  ground,  undoubt- 
edly connected  with  the  imperial  casino  of  the  gardens 
of  Sallust,  remains  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
Piazza  Sallustiana.  Remembering  that  in  former  years 
other  crypts  of  the  same  structure,  and  lying  at  the  same 


354    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA 

depth  under  the  houses  bordering  on  the  same  piazza, 
had  been  found  to  contain  works  of  sculpture,  hidden  on 
purpose  as  if  to  shield  them  from  an  impending  danger, 
I  warned  the  overseer  to  use  the  greatest  care  in  clear- 
ing away  the  crypt,  lest  the  works  of  statuary  probably 
buried  in  its  depths  might  be  damaged.  Four  or  five 
mornings  later  the  masterpiece  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying illustration  was  exhumed  from  its  hiding-place. 
I  need  not  expatiate  on  its  artistic  and  archaeological 
value,  nor  discuss  the  place  which  the  unfortunate  girl 
occupied  in  the  group.  It  is  sufficient  to  remark  that 
this  is  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  figure  from  the  same  com- 
position which  has  come  to  light  ex  abditis  locis  within 
the  bounds  of  the  gardens  of  Sallust.  Pietro  Sante  Bar- 
toli,  the  antiquarian  of  Pope  Innocent  X,  states  in  his 
"  Memoirs"  that  while  Father  Luke  Wading  was  laying 
the  foundations  of  the  fa9ade  of  S.  Isidoro  on  the  Pin- 
cian  he  found  five  statues  buried  in  a  crypt,  which  were 
purchased  by  Cardinal  Francesco  Barberini,  the  pro- 
tector of  his  order.  Six  or  seven  more  statues  were  found 
likewise  concealed  under  the  house  No.  3  Piazza  Sal- 
lustiana  in  October,  1886,  two  of  which,  from  the  set 
of  the  Niobids,  now  belong  to  the  Jacobsen  Museum  in 
Copenhagen.  Pirro  Ligorio  describes  "a  number  of 
statues,  life-size,  in  bold  relief,  belonging  to  the  story 
of  Niobe  and  her  daughters  shot  by  Diana  and  Apollo," 
as  found  in  the  sixteenth  century  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
hiding-place  of  the  last  Niobids.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
concerning  the  danger  from  which  the  keepers  of  the 
gardens  of  Sallust  tried  to  save  its  works  of  statuary. 
Compare  Procopius,  "Vandals,"  I,  2,  where  he  describes 
the  storming  of  the  Porta  Salaria  and  the  destruction 
by  fire  of  the  Casino  by  the  barbarians  of  Alaric  on 
August  10,  410. 


ONE  OF  NIOBE'S  DAUGHTERS  STRUCK  TO  DEATH  BY  DIANA'S 

ARROW 


OF  The 
UNIVERSITY 


OF 


WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN   CAMPAGNA   357 

The  falling  youth,  now  in  the  Museo  Nazionale  alle 
Terme,  is  not  the  only  specimen  of  the  group  placed  by 


One  of  the  duu^^hlers  of  Xiohc,  iVoiu  Wro's  villa  at  Sublaqueum 
(Vatican  IMuseum) 

Nero  in  his  villa  at  Sublaqueum.  One  of  his  sisters, 
now  in  the  Museo  Chiaramonti,  was  found  in  the  same 
place  in  the  time  of  Pope  Paul  III.  Both  statues,  once 
standing  on  the  same  mass  of  rock,  were  most  carefully 
detached  from  it  in  the  time  of  Nero,  who  probably 


358    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

wanted  to  place  them  one  by  one  in  a  symmetrical  line 
against  a  triangular  background  of  evergreen,  imitating 
the  shape  of  a  pediment.  This  process  of  separation 
from  the  socket  originally  shared  by  the  whole  group 
of  boys  and  girls,  is  quite  noticeable  in  the  plinth  of 
the  youth  (p.  351),  where  the  right  foot  has  been  made 
to  rest  on  a  projecting  bracket  because  a  larger  piece 
could  not  be  cut  away  from  the  rock  without  damaging 
the  nearest  figure. 

A  discovery  of  the  same  nature,  but  of  higher  value, 
was  made  in  the  spring  of  1878  in  Nero's  villa  at  Antium. 
Part  of  the  cliff  on  the  edge  of  which  the  palace  stood 
having  collapsed  after  a  great  gale,  a  statue  was  found 
lying  in  shallow  water  at  the  foot  of  its  original  niche  and 
pedestal.  An  interesting  legal  case  arose  between  Prince 
Pietro  Aldobrandini,  the  owner  of  the  cliff  and  niche  and 
of  the  pedestal  from  which  the  statue  had  been  wrenched 
by  the  fury  of  the  storm,  and  the  Italian  government, 
the  owner  of  the  shallow  inlet  in  which  the  statue  was 
found  lying.  Judgment  was  given  in  favor  of  the  prince, 
whose  heirs  have  just  given  up  the  statue  to  the  nation 
for  the  handsome  consideration  of  six  hundred  thou- 
sand francs  ($120,000),  six  times  as  much  as  the  price 
at  which  it  could  have  been  purchased  in  1878.  It  re- 
presents the  draped  figure  of  a  maiden  holding  a  plate 
in  her  left  hand  and  looking  intently  at  its  contents. 
She  has  been  named  the  Maiden  of  Mystery  because 
archaeologists  are  as  ignorant  to-day  of  her  origin, 
authorship,  name,  and  place  in  the  history  of  Greek 
art  as  they  were  thirty  years  ago,  when  she  first  emerged 
from  the  foam  of  the  sea. 

I  have  just  paid  her  another  visit  (June  15th)  in  com- 
pany with  two  leaders  of  the  Italian  and  German  classic 
schools.    I  have  listened  to  their  arguments  and  subtle 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  GREEK  MAIDEN  FROM  ANTIUM 


THE   LAND   OF  NERO  361 

controversy,  and  I  have  left  Antium  more  fascinated 
than  ever  by  the  "  bella  incognita, "  but  no  nearer  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  She  is  not  a  mystery,  but  a 
tangle  of  mysteries.  Must  we  consider  her  lovely  face 
a  portrait  from  nature,  or  is  it  simply  due  to  the  fancy  of 
the  artist  ?  The  twig  which  lies  on  the  plate,  is  it  from 
a  laurel  or  an  olive  branch  ?  Is  she  taking  it  up  from 
the  plate  or  laying  it  down  upon  it  ?  The  roll  of  thick 
stuff  near  the  rim  of  the  plate,  is  it  a  sacrificial  band,  or  a 
scroll  of  parchment,  or  a  strap  of  leather.?  The  little 
claws  which  are  seen  near  the  twig,  do  they  belong  to 
a  pet  animal,  or  are  they  the  feet  of  a  candelabrum  or 
of  an  incense  box  (acerra)  ?  What  impression  did  the 
artist  try  to  convey  by  treating  her  tunic  and  her  shawl 
in  such  a  peculiar  style  ?  That  the  shawl  was  made  of 
wool  and  the  tunic  of  plaited  raw  silk  ?  Is  the  marble 
out  of  which  she  is  carved  Parian  or  Hymettian  ?  To 
which  epoch  and  to  which  school  must  such  a  work  be 
assigned  ? 

No  definite  answer  has  been  given  to  these  queries ;  no 
subject  more  shrouded  in  mystery  has  ever  perplexed 
the  student.  Nameless  the  maiden  will  enter  the  gates  of 
the  Museo  Nazionale,  and  nameless  she  will  remain  in 
spite  of  all  the  attempts  on  our  part  to  wrest  her  secrets 
from  her.  One  point,  however,  seems  certain :  she  looks, 
or  she  has  been  made  intentionally  to  look,  untidy ;  her 
hair  is  not  dressed ;  her  shawl  has  just  been  thrown 
carelessly  on  her  shoulders;  her  shoes  look  more  like 
slippers  than  sandals.  Such  a  slovenly  appearance, 
certainly  intentional,  has  given  rise  to  the  following 
conjecture:  that  she  may  be  a  "penitent"  girl,  chosen 
by  her  tribe  or  by  her  fellow-citizens  to  appease  the 
wrath  of  the  gods  and  to  avert  with  her  offerings  and 
prayers  an  impending  calamity.    If  this  is  the  case,  it  is 


362    WANDERINGS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 

a  pity  that  we  cannot  better  identify  the  objects  which 
the  girl  has  gathered  on  her  plate  as  a  propitiatory 
offering  to  the  gods. 

These  brief  reflections,  coupled  with  those  just  offered 
on  the  subject  of  the  youth  from  Subiaco,  make  us 
wonder  at  Nero's  sagacity  in  chosing  such  specimens  of 
Greek  art  for  the  ornamentation  of  his  residences  as 
were  destined  to  challenge  and  defy  the  keenness  of 
modern  science,  and  to  escape  recognition  as  the  maiden 
from  Antium  appears  to  have  done. 

With  this  hurried  visit  to  the  remains  of  beautiful 
Antium  we  have  come  to  the  end  of  our  first  journey 
through  the  Campagna.  I  say  first  journey  because 
many  centres  of  interest  such  as  Lanuvium,  Ostia,  Alba- 
num,  Veii,  Astura,  Nomentum,  Fidense,  Gabii,  Aricia, 
having  been  passed  over  for  want  of  space,  it  is  possible 
that  —  should  the  present  volume  prove  acceptable  to 
the  reader  —  the  subject  might  be  continued  in  another. 
The  author  of  the  "Description  of  Latium"  remarks 
that  "however  satisfactory  and  complete  may  be  the 
account  given  by  different  authors  of  the  city  of  Rome 
and  its  more  immediate  environs,  little  (in  comparison) 
has  been  said  on  a  subject  grateful  to  the  classic  scholar 
no  less  than  to  the  painter  and  antiquary."  These  lines 
were  written  in  1805;  but  they  appear  no  less  true  a 
century  later.  Since  the  publication  of  the  "Descrip- 
tion," many  works  have  been  written,  by  Gell,  Nibby, 
Burn,  Ashby,  Tommasetti;  they  deal  with  the  archaeo- 
logical or  topographical  side  of  the  subject,  but  none 
with  the  feelings  of  quiet  contentment  with  which  the 
Campagna  rewards  its  explorer.  "Here  the  mind  is 
never  depressed  by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere,  nor 
the  faculties  benumbed  by  the  chilling  blasts  which,  in 


THE   LAND   OF  NERO 


many  other  countries,  destroy  every  comfort  of  existence. 
Vigorous  and  cheerful  old  age  is  here  fully  capable  of 
enjoying  the  social  hour  and  the  pleasures  which  tem- 
perance and  moderation  allow;  and  though  life  may  not 


The  Mysterious  Greek  Maiden  from  Antium 
(Details  of  head) 

be  prolonged  in  these  climates  beyond  the  usual  limits 
(as  is  the  case  with  the  province  of  Perugia),  it  certainly 
glides  more  smoothly,  and  is  freed  from  those  minute 
cares,  and  tiresome  precautions,  which,  in  many  other 
parts  of  Europe,  render  old  age  a  burden,  and  interrupt 


APPENDIX 

AS  we  have  considered  the  Campagna  as  "  the  Land  of  Hor- 
ace," it  may  interest  the  reader  to  hear  what  the  poet  himself 
has  to  say  concerning  it.  The  second  Ode  of  the  Book  of 
Epodes  piits  into  the  mouth  of  the  rich  usurer,  Alfius,  a  glow- 
ing description  of  the  charm  of  country  life  upon  the  Campagna. 
We  do  not  know  the  actual  occasion  of  the  Ode,  but  nothing  seems 
more  likely,  as  one  writer  suggests,  than  that  there  was  a  report  that 
the  usurer  was  about  to  buy  a  country-place  and  retire  from  busi- 
ness, and  that  on  the  strength  of  the  rumor  the  poem  was  written. 

The  present  translation  has  been  specially  made  by  Prof.  John 
Morris  Moore. 

THE    PRAISES    OF    A    COUNTRY   LIFE 

(Beatus  ille) 

Alfius^  the  usurer,  sings  the  praises  of  a  country  life,  but  shortly 

after  returns  to  his  old  trade 

Happy  the  man  who,  far  from  traffic  loud. 

Content,  as  folks  of  old. 
To  own  and  plough  the  fields  his  father  plough'd. 

Lives  free  from  lender's  gold ! 

For  him  no  ruthless  war-trump  sounds  alarms, 

No  sea  terrific  roars : 
He  shuns  the  Forum,  and  the  gilded  arms 

Above  the  rich  man's  doors; 

And  rather  to  some  lofty  poplar  tree 

To  wed  the  vine  proceeds. 
Or  else  his  erring  flocks  he  stays  to  see 

Go  bleating  o'er  the  meads; 

Or  prunes  and  grafts  his  plants  with  hand  secure. 
Their  vigor  to  renew. 


368  APPENDIX 

Or  presses  honey  into  vessels  pure, 
Or  shears  the  shivering  ewe. 

And  when  blithe  Autumn,  beaming  o'er  the  land 

With  mellow  fruit  is  seen, 
What  joy  his  grafted  pears,  with  careful  hand. 

And  purple  grapes  to  glean ! 

With  these,  Priapus,  welcome  offerings,  he 

Thine  aid  propitiates; 
These  tributes.  Sire  Sylvanus,  unto  thee. 

The  guardian  of  his  gates. 

Ofttimes  beneath  an  aged  oak  he  '11  rest. 

Oft  on  a  grassy  height, 
Where  waters,  bounding  from  the  rocky  crest. 

Plunge  madly  out  of  sight; 

Or  lightly  sleep  where  birds,  in  leafy  nook. 

Repeat  their  plaintive  tale. 
To  the  sweet  concert  of  the  babbling  brook. 

Meandering  through  the  dale. 

But  when  his  tempests  thund'ring  Jove  prepares, 

And  calls  the  winter  back. 
The  savage  boar  towards  the  ready  snares 

He  drives  with  eager  pack; 

Or  greedy  thrushes  lures  to  hidden  nets. 
That  treach'rous  staves  support, 

Or  gins  for  timid  hares  and  cranes  he  sets. 
The  guerdon  of  his  sport. 

Who  for  such  joys  would  not  desert  the  lair 
Where  broils  and  lewdness  meet  ?  — 

What  if  a  partner  chaste  the  dwelling  share, 
And  tend  the  children  sweet? 

One  like  the  Sabine  wife,  or  sunburnt  spouse 
To  lithe  Apulian  dear. 


APPENDIX  369 

Who  fills  the  sacred  hearth  with  crackling  boughs, 
Her  weary  mate  to  cheer, 

And  milks  the  captur'd  ewe,  and  taps  the  cask 

With  sweet  new  vintage  fraught, 
And  'mid  the  viands  sets  the  welcome  flask, 

To  flavor  food  unbought. 

Not  Lake  Lucrinus'  oysters,  not  the  host 

Of  turbot,  dainty  feast, 
That  howling  storms  compel  towards  our  coast, 

With  scar-fish  from  the  East; 

Not  Afric's,  nor  Ionia's  fowl,  for  me, 

If  that  I  but  obtain 
A  berry  from  the  luscious  olive  tree, 

Or  sorrel  from  the  plain ; 

Or  wholesome  mallows,^  or  the  lamb  dispatch'd 

In  festive  sacrifice 
To  Terminus,  or  kid  adroitly  snatch'd 

From  lurking  wolf's  device. 

While  thus  I  banquet,  let  me  view  my  flocks 

Skip  homeward  fatly  fed. 
Or,  with  the  plough  revers'd,  the  weary  ox 

Draw  nigh  with  drooping  head. 

Then,  at  the  well-spread  table,  let  my  slaves, 

Whose  number  is  my  pride. 
Enjoy  the  simple  food  that  hunger  craves. 

The  glistening  hearth  beside. 


These  said,  the  lender  Alfius  swears  he'll  sum 

His  gains,  and  farming  start : 
Thus  pass  the  Ides,  but,  when  the  Kalends  come, 

Fresh  bonds  are  in  the  mart. 

*  Still  eaten  as  a  salad  in  some  country  places  in  Italy. 


368  APPENDIX 

Or  presses  honey  into  vessels  pure. 
Or  shears  the  shivering  ewe. 

And  when  bhthe  Autumn,  beaming  o'er  the  land 

With  mellow  fruit  is  seen. 
What  joy  his  grafted  pears,  with  careful  hand, 

And  purple  grapes  to  glean ! 

With  these,  Priapus,  welcome  offerings,  he 

Thine  aid  propitiates; 
These  tributes.  Sire  Sylvanus,  unto  thee, 

The  guardian  of  his  gates. 

Ofttimes  beneath  an  aged  oak  he'll  rest, 

Oft  on  a  grassy  height, 
Where  waters,  bounding  from  the  rocky  crest. 

Plunge  madly  out  of  sight; 

Or  lightly  sleep  where  birds,  in  leafy  nook. 

Repeat  their  plaintive  tale. 
To  the  sweet  concert  of  the  babbling  brook. 

Meandering  through  the  dale. 

But  when  his  tempests  thund'ring  Jove  prepares, 

And  calls  the  winter  back. 
The  savage  boar  towards  the  ready  snares 

He  drives  with  eager  pack; 

Or  greedy  thrushes  lures  to  hidden  nets. 
That  treach'rous  staves  support. 

Or  gins  for  timid  hares  and  cranes  he  sets. 
The  guerdon  of  his  sport. 

Who  for  such  joys  would  not  desert  the  lair 
Where  broils  and  lewdness  meet  ?  — 

What  if  a  partner  chaste  the  dwelling  share. 
And  tend  the  children  sweet? 

One  like  the  Sabine  wife,  or  sunburnt  spouse 
To  lithe  Apulian  dear. 


APPENDIX  369 

Who  fills  the  sacred  hearth  with  crackling  boughs, 
Her  weary  mate  to  cheer, 

And  milks  the  captur'd  ewe,  and  taps  the  cask 

With  sweet  new  vintage  fraught. 
And  'mid  the  viands  sets  the  welcome  flask, 

To  flavor  food  unbought. 

Not  Lake  Lucrinus'  oysters,  not  the  host 

Of  turbot,  dainty  feast, 
That  howling  storms  compel  towards  our  coast. 

With  scar-fish  from  the  East; 

Not  Afric's,  nor  Ionia's  fowl,  for  me. 

If  that  I  but  obtain 
A  berry  from  the  luscious  olive  tree. 

Or  sorrel  from  the  plain ; 

Or  wholesome  mallows,^  or  the  lamb  dispatch'd 

In  festive  sacrifice 
To  Terminus,  or  kid  adroitly  snatch'd 

From  lurking  wolf's  device. 

While  thus  I  banquet,  let  me  view  my  flocks 

Skip  homeward  fatly  fed, 
Or,  with  the  plough  revers'd,  the  weary  ox 

Draw  nigh  with  drooping  head. 

Then,  at  the  well-spread  table,  let  my  slaves. 

Whose  number  is  my  pride. 
Enjoy  the  simple  food  that  hunger  craves. 

The  glistening  hearth  beside. 


These  said,  the  lender  Alfius  swears  he'll  sum 

His  gains,  and  farming  start: 
Thus  pass  the  Ides,  but,  when  the  Kalends  come, 

Fresh  bonds  are  in  the  mart. 

^  Still  eaten  as  a  salad  in  some  country  places  in  Italy. 


INDEX 


Aborigines,  the,  in  the  Campagna,  14. 

Addison,  Joseph,  quoted,  162. 

Advocates  in  ancient  times.  See  Law- 
yers. 

iElian  family,  the,  128-130. 

Africa,  estates  in,  46. 

Agon  Capitolinus,  139-141. 

Agrippina,  284,  285. 

Alba  Longa,  15. 

Albert,  Maurice,  on  Maecenas's  villa, 
82. 

Aldovrandi,  Ulisse,  on  group  of  horses 
from  Hadrian's  villa,  139. 

Alpine  roads,  30-34. 

Ancona,  Ciriaco  d',  at  Tivoli,  107. 

Anicetus,  C.  Julius, sectarian,  167, 168. 

Anicii,  the,  207-209. 

Anio,  the  part  it  has  played  in  forming 
the  Campagna,  9,  10. 

Antinous,  179-187. 

Antium,  conflict  of,  with  Rome,  339  ; 
associations  of,  with  Nero,  340  ;  villa 
of  Nero  at,  345, 357-362  ;  harbor  of, 
348  ;  Maiden  of  Mystery  found  at, 
357-362. 

Antium,  Cape,  333-335. 

Anzio.  See  Antium. 

Aquae  Albulee,  50,  51. 

Aquse  Apollinares,  50. 

Aquae  Ciceronianae,  333. 

Aquae  Posidianae,  50. 

Aqueducts  of  the  Campagna,  6,  7,  24. 

Argentario,  Monte,  48. 

Astinelli,  Colle  degli,  church  on,  217. 

Astura,  sunken  ship  discovered  at,  336. 

Augustus,  at  Tibur,  81,  82  ;  his  abste- 
miousness, 97  ;  his  fondness  for 
gaming,  97,  98. 

Aurelian,  and  Zenobia,  153, 154  ;  raises 
temple  to  the  Sun  of  Rome,  170. 


Aurelius,  Marcus,  spiral  column  of, 
injured  by  earthquake,  219,  220. 

Aurelius  Victor  on  Hadrian,  127. 

Autographs  of  architects  and  painters 
on  ruins,  158,  159. 

Balbillus,  Ti.  Julius,  sectarian,  167, 
168, 169. 

Ball-playing  in  ancient  times,  98-100. 

Banditti  in  ancient  times,  40,  41. 

Baronio,  Cardinal  Cesare,  274. 

Bartoli,  Pietro  Sante,  on  sanctuary  at 
Veii,  236. 

Bathing  in  the  open  sea,  Romans  ob- 
jected to,  324. 

Baths,  48-52,  324. 

Beghini.  See  Fraticelli. 

Belvedere  Apollo  found  in  Abbey  of 
Grottaferrata,  268. 

Bertinoro,  springs  of,  48,  49. 

Bessarion,  Cardinal,  274,  276-281. 

Biondi,  274. 

Bisocchi.  See  Fraticelli. 

Boccea,  68  n. 

Borghese,  Marcantonio,  his  estate,  43. 

Borghese,  Cardinal  Scipione,  293,  294. 

"Boschi  sacri  del  Lazio,"  330. 

Bracciano,  Lake  of,  45. 

Bracciolini,  Poggio,  at  Tivoli,  107. 

Braun,  Emil,  on  representations  of 
Antinous,  180. 

Breislak,  Dr.,  on  the  Roman  Forum, 
4n. 

Bresciani,  Antonio,  investigated  oracu- 
lar cave,  228,  229. 

Brocchi  on  malaria  in  the  Campagna, 
2,3. 

Bruce,  Dr.,  on  the  wheel  marks  in 
Pompeii  and  the  gauge  of  English 
railways,  329. 


372 


INDEX 


Brutus,  villa  of,  at  Tibur,  76. 
Bulgarini  family  plundered  Hadrian's 
villa,  139. 

Csecilia  Metella,  grave  of,  25. 

Caesarion,  son  of  Caesar  and  Cleopatra, 
164. 

Cains  Cestius,  Pyramid  of,  26. 

Calendars,  60,  61. 

Calvo,  Monte,  attractive  excursion  to, 
120. 

Camaldoli,  hermitage  of,  297-301. 

Cameos  found  in  the  Campagna,  26. 

Campagna,  the  wholesomeness  of,  in 
early  times,  2-6  ;  inhabited  in  pre- 
historic times,  4  ;  called  the  "  Land 
of  Saturn,"  6  ;  sanitation  of,  towards 
the  end  of  the  Republic,  6,  7  ;  its 
appearance  in  early  imperial  times, 
6  ;  its  extent,  8,  9  ;  its  formation,  9- 
11  ;  three  geological  formations 
traced  in,  11,  12  ;  early  inhabitants 
of,  13-16  ;  what  part  of,  included  in 
the  ancient  metropolitan  district, 
16-24  ;  comparison  of  the  ancient 
and  modern  conditions  of,  19-24 
ruins  of,  24-29  ;  villas  in,  29, 42-48 
causes  of  the  denudation  of,  52-60 
tree- worship  in,  60-65,  146;  watch- 
towers  in,  65,  66  ;  attempt  of  popes 
to  restore,  66  ;  flora  of, 67,  68  ;  fauna 
of,  68,  71  ;  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  on, 
71-73  ;  land  of  Horace,  74-126;  land 
of  Hadrian,  127-187;  land  of  Gregory 
the  Great,  188-246  ;  land  of  Cicero, 
247-301  ;  land  of  Pliny  the  younger, 
302-333  ;  land  of  Nero,  333-364 ; 
amount  of  sculpture  dug  out  of,  340  ; 
the  "  Description  of  Latium  "  on, 
362-364. 

Canina,  274. 

Caput  Aquae  Ferentinae,  16. 

Caraffa,  Cardinal  Oliviero,  364. 

Cara villa,  villa  of  Annibale  Caro, 
288-292. 

Caro,  Annibale,  adviser  of  Torquato 
Conti  in  laying  out  villa,  212  ;  his 
villa,    274,     288  ;     translated     the 


^neid,  274;  a  successful  explorer 
of  antiquities,  291. 

Cassio,  Alberto,  his  account  of  excava- 
tions at  Villa  Santa  Sigola,  204,  205. 

Cassius,  villa  of,  at  Tibur,  76. 

Castel  Madama,  identification  of  site 
of,  104  n. 

Castel  Porziano,  7  n.,  9  n. 

Castellacci  in  the  Campagna,  65,  66. 

Catena,  Villa,  211-216. 

Cato  on  the  fever,  5. 

Catullus,  villa  of,  91. 

Chaupy,  Capmartin  de,  on  Cicero's 
villas,  42  ;  claimed  to  have  discov- 
ered the  site  of  Horace's  Sabine 
farm,  121-123  ;  identified  site  of 
Cures,  122  ;  on  the  Tusculan  district, 
258. 

Cicero,  number  of  his  villas,  42  ;  on 
the  origin  of  Praeneste,  227,  228  ; 
site  of  his  Tusculan  villa,  247,  248, 
254,  257 ;  his  Tusculan  villa  the 
centre  of  a  cluster  of  lawyers'  villas, 
248  ;  not  a  lawyer  in  the  present 
sense  of  the  term,  250  ;  in  defence 
of  Fonteius,  252  ;  in  defence  of  Milo, 
253,  254  ;  his  love  for  his  Tusculan 
villa,  258,  259  ;  his  Tusculan  villa 
small,  but  of  great  value,  259-261  ; 
his  children,  261,  262  ;  his  habits 
and  death,  263,  264  ;  tile  inscribed 
with  his  name,  264  ;  his  Tusculan 
villa  in  the  hands  of  Silius  Italicus, 
265. 

Cicero,  Marcus,  son  of  the  orator,  261, 
263. 

Claudian  aqueduct,  24. 

Claudianus,  Flavius,  his  villas,  42. 

Cleopatra  at  Rome,  164. 

Cocciano,  present  name  of  imperial 
estate  at  Frascati,  285. 

Coliseum  injured  by  earthquakes, 
221-224. 

Collegium  salutare,  266. 

Como,  Lake  of,  45. 

Conche,  154,  157. 

Constantine,  basilica  of,  injured  by 
earthquake,  221. 


INDEX 


373 


Conti,  the,  pedigree  of,  207-209.  In- 
nocent 111,208,  209,  213;  career  of, 
210,211;  Torquato,  211-213 ;  Villa 
Catena,  211-216  ;  Innocent  XIII, 
213-216  ;  last  stand  of  the  Fraticelli 
against  the  church  under  the  pro- 
tection of,  217  ;  Torre  de',  218  ; 
connection  of,  with  Forum  Pacis,221. 

Contini,  Francesco,  157,  158. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum,  Tivoli 
the  birthplace  of,  107. 

Cozza,  Abbot  Giuseppe,  on  the  site  of 
Cicero's  Tusculanum,  247,  248. 

Cures,  site  of,  122. 

Cynthia,  villa  of,  88-92, 100, 101  ;  her 
grave,  103. 

Decimo,  68,  68  n. 

Delille  on  Tibur,  75. 

"  Description  of  Latium,"  on  Pales- 
trina,  244,  245  ;  on  the  hermitage  of 
Cardinal  Passionei  and  the  monks 
of  Camaldolesi,  300  ;  on  the  forests 
and  the  winds  of  the  Laurentian 
coast,  330,  331 ;  on  the  city  of  Rome, 
362;  on  the  Campagna,  362-364. 

Dice,  use  of,  in  ancient  times,  97,  98. 

Dion  Cassius,  his  description  of  the 
welcome  given  to  King  Tyridates  at 
Rome,  164,  165. 

Dionigi,  Marco,  207. 

Discobolus,  statue  of,  found  in  Queen 
Elena's  cottage,  320-324  ;  other 
statues  of,  320,  321. 

Dodona,  226. 

Domenichino,  273. 

Domitii,  estates  of  the,  46-48. 

Drinks,  in  ancient  times,  95-97. 

Dureau  de  la  Malle  supports  Straton's 
theory  of  a  flood,  13. 

Earthquakes,  effects  of,  in  Campagna, 
219-224. 

Elena,  Queen  of  Italy,  inscription  dis- 
covered at  the  Vicus  Augustanus  by, 
311  ;  tribute  to,  311  ;  her  cottage, 
315-318  ;  statue  of  the  Discobolus 
discovered  at,  318-324. 


Empulum,  site  of  Castel  Madama,  104, 

105. 
Este,  Cardinal  Ippolito  d',  107,  111  ; 

death  of,  114. 
Este,  Villa  d',  107,  108,  111-114. 
Eustachius,  legend  of,  200-204  ;  home 

of,  on  the  Vulturella,  204,  205  ;  his 

burial  place,  206,  207. 
Ex-votosy  236. 

Falconieri,  287. 

Farnese,   Violante,   builds   church  of 

Madonna  della  Pietk,  213. 
Fauna  of  the  Campagna,  68,  71. 
Fede,  Count  Giuseppe,  connection  of, 

with  Hadrian's  villa,  142,  145. 
Fever,  the,  in  Roman  literature,  5,  6. 
Ficana,  10. 
Ficoroni,    Francesco,    on     the    tombs 

and  mausolea  of  the  Campagna,  24, 

25. 
Fiumicino,  10. 
Flood,    Straton's   theory    of,  12,    13 ; 

caused  by  the  Tiber,  189. 
Flora  of  the  Campagna,  67,  68. 
Fons  Aponi,  50. 
Fontana,  Domenico,  restores  the  spiral 

column    of   Marcus    Aurelius,  219, 

220. 
Forests,  along  the  coast,  west  and  east 

of   the    mouth  of   the    Tiber,  329, 

330. 
Forsyth,  W.,  quoted,  94. 
Fortunse  Primigenise,  Templum,  239- 

242. 
Fortune-telling,  method  of,  in  ancient 

times,  242. 
Forum,  Roman,  a  volcanic  crater,  4, 

4n. 
Forum  Appii,  39. 
Forum  Pacis,  221. 
Frascati,   rebuilt   by   Paul    III,   281, 

286  ;  represents  the  central  palace 

and  headquarters    of  the    imperial 

estate,  283  ;  Villa  Rufina  at,  287. 
Fraticelli,  the,  217,  218. 
Furietti,  Alessandro,  his  discoveries  in 

Hadrian's  villa,  141. 


S74 


INDEX 


Gaionas,  M.  Antonius,  sectarian,  167, 
170-173. 

Galen,  on  gymnastics,  100. 

Gallus,  Cornelius,  91-93. 

Gambling  in  ancient  times,  97,  98. 

Gamekeepers  in  ancient  times,  310- 
312. 

Games,  social,  in  ancient  times,  97. 

Gauckler,  Professor  Paul,  172-177. 

Geikie,  Sir  Archibald,  on  the  Cam- 
pagna,  71-73. 

Gericomio,  farmhouse  called,  114-120. 

Ghezzi,  Pier  Leone,  his  writings,  298, 
299. 

Giannutri,  island,  46,  47. 

Giglio,  Isola  del,  46,  47. 

Ginestre,  Colle  delle,  site  of  Cicero's 
Tusculan  villa,  257. 

Gosselin  supports  Straton's  theory  of 
a  flood,  13. 

Gracchus,  Cains,  discovery  of  the  place 
of  his  death,  172. 

Great  St.  Bernard,  the,  31-34. 

Greek  works  of  art,  loss  of,  341- 
343. 

Gregory  the  Great,  land  of,  gem  of 
the  Campagna,  188, 189  ;  birth,  189 
at  the  time  of  the  plague,  190-194 
physical     characteristics    of,    194 
crowned,  194  ;  his  home  on  the  Cse- 
lian  hill  unexplored,  195  ;  disposed 
of   possessions  in  favor  of  brother 
monks,  196. 

Grottaferrata,  Abbey  of,  near  Cicero's 
Tusculan  villa,  247  ;  not  on  the  site 
of  Cicero's  villa,  266-268  ;  relics  of, 
268,  271  ;  wealth  of,  271  ;  name  of, 
272;  charm  of,  272,  273  ;  connected 
with  literary  and  artistic  work,  274- 
276  ;  connection  of  Cardinal  Bessa- 
rion  with,  274,  276-281. 

Groups  of  statues,  86-88. 

Hackert,  Georg,  his  views  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Horace's  farm,  123, 124. 

Hadrian,  his  ancestry,  129,  130  ;   his 
career,  130-131. 
Villa  of,  portrait  gallery  in,  85  ;  ex- 


cavated by  Ligorio,  107;  plan  of, 
taken  by  Ligorio,  111  ;  places  re- 
produced in,  127  ;  site  of,  128; 
kept  in  good  condition  to  time  of 
Constantine,  132,  135  ;  uncertain 
when  it  began  to  be  despoiled,  135, 
136  ;  plundered  from  time  of  Alex- 
ander VI  to  middle  of  last  century, 
136  ;  plundered  by  the  Bulgarini 
family,  139  ;  excavated  by  Furietti, 
141  ;  finds  made  by  Baratta  at,  141  ; 
under  Count  Fede,  142,  145  ;  under 
Lanciani's  care,  145 ;  excavations 
of  Hamilton  and  the  brothers  Pira- 
nesi,  147,  148  ;  excavations  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  148,  149 ;  pres- 
ent condition  of,  149,  150. 

Hamilton,  Gavin,  his  excavations  in 
Hadrian's  villa,  147. 

Helbig  on  statue  of  Antinous,  180. 

Herculanii  Augustales,  82. 

Herodotus  on  the  royal  road  from  Sar- 
dis  to  Susa,  35. 

Horace,  on  inns,  38,  39;  on  Tibur,  74  ; 
life  of,  76-81  ;  had  sore  eyes,  92  ; 
on  wines,  96  ;  his  Sabine  farm,  121- 
126 ;  translation  of  second  Epode, 
367-369. 

Horosius,  Excerpts  from  the  Chronicle 
of,  222. 

Hortensia  pleaded  before  the  magis- 
trates, 253. 

Hortensius,  248,  250,  253. 

Horti  Mseceniani,  86. 

Hostelries.  See  Inns. 

Hotels.  See  Inns. 

Human  sacrifice,  trace  of,  discovered 
at  Rome,  176  ;  at  Alexandria,  177. 

Iconetta,  62. 

Iconographic  sets,  85,  86. 

Innocent  III,  Pope,  209. 

Innocent   XII,  journey    of,  to   Porto 

d'  Anzio,  214,  215. 
Innocent   XIII,  journey   of,  to   Poli, 

213-216. 
Inns  in  ancient  times,  38-41. 
Inundation  caused  by  the  Tiber,  189. 


INDEX 


375 


Jones,  W.  H.,  on  malaria  in  the  Cain- 
pagna,  3. 

Jugum  Pceninum.  See  Great  St.  Ber- 
nard. 

Julian  the  Apostate  at  Prseneste,  243. 

Kireher,  Athanasius,  and  the  Vultur- 
ella,  196,  199  ;  his  account  of  Eus- 
tachius,  200-204. 

Lafreri  on  the  Villa  d'  Este,  112,  113. 

Lakes,  Romans  did  not  care  for,  45. 

Langobards,  invasion  of,  193,  194. 

Latins,  the,  their  origin,  14-16. 

Laurentian  villa  of  Pliny,  306-308. 

Laurentum,  origin  of  the  name,  313; 
history  of,  314,  315  ;  cottage  dis- 
covered near,  315-318  ;  journey 
from,  to  Antium,  327-331. 

Lawyers  in  ancient  times,  250-254. 

Ligorio,  Pirro,  designer  of  the  Villa 
d'  Este,  107,  108,  111,  113  ;  an  im- 
postor and  forger,  108  ;  the  most 
genial  artist  of  his  age,  108  ;  un- 
published plans  of,  112  n. 

Livy,  on  the  site  of  Rome,  2  ;  on  vol- 
canic disturbances  at  and  near  Rome, 
3,4. 

Lizard  and  Frog  design,  84,  85. 

Lollia  Paulina,  161. 

Lolliorum,  Villa,  161. 

Lollius,  Marcus,  160. 

Longinus,  Cassius,  153. 

Lotario  II,  213. 

Lucretius,  quoted,  273. 

Lucullus,  owner  of  three  villas,  42  ; 
part  of  one  of  his  villas  bought  by 
Annibale  Caro,  288  ;  as  a  host,  288  ; 
mausoleum  of,  292. 

Lugano,  Lake  of,  45. 

Madama,  Castel,  identification  of  site 

of,  104  n. 
Madama  d'Austria.  See  Marguerite  of 

Austria. 
Madama  palace,  104 
Madama  villa,  104. 
Madonna  della  Pietk,  213. 


Maecenas,  villa  of,  76,  82-84 ;  and 
Horace,  80. 

Maiden  of  Mystery  discovered  in  Ne- 
ro's villa  at  Antium,  357-362. 

Mails  in  ancient  times,  35-37. 

Malaria  in  the  Campagna,  2-5. 

Marcian  aqueduct,  24. 

Maremma,  the,  in  ancient  times,  20, 
46,  48. 

Marguerite  of  Austria,  104,  105. 

Mario,  Monte,  10. 

Marucchi  on  fortune-telling,  242. 

Mausolea  of  the  Campagna,  24-29. 

Mettia  Hedonea,  her  villa,  46. 

Michelangelo  at  Tivoli,  107. 

Michilli,  Liborio  and  Giovanni,  117, 
118. 

Milo,  Cicero  in  defence  of,  253,  254. 

Mithrseum,  at  Alexandria,  177  ;  at 
Rome,  found  by  Flaminio  Vacca, 
178,  179. 

Mithras  Leontokephalos,  figure  of, 
177-179. 

Mithridates,  vase  of,  335,  336  ;  mas- 
sacre ordered  by,  336. 

Montgenevre,  the,  34. 

Moore,  Professor  John  Morris,  his 
translation  of  Horace's  second 
Epode,  367-369. 

Musa,  Petronia,  102. 

Nero,  his  connection  with  Antium,  340, 
341  ;  possessed  of  a  double  nature, 
345-348  ;  his  ship  canal  from  Naples 
to  Rome,  348,  349  ;  an  artist,  350- 
352,  362. 

Nibby,  Antonio,  on  marine  fossils  in 
the  Monte  Mario,  12,  13. 

Nicot,  Jean,  117. 

Niebuhr  on  Cicero  and  Hortensius, 
250. 

Niobe,  group,  found  at  Subiaco,  352  ; 
other  statues  of,  353,  354. 

Obelisk,  monument  to  Antinous,  183. 
Olive  groves,  145-147. 
Oracles,  224-238. 
Orators,  ancient,  250-254. 


376 


INDEX 


Ostia,  the  healthiness  of,  8  ;  now  7000 
yards  from  the  shore,  10  ;  its  death, 
56-60. 

Palestrina.  See  Prseneste. 

Palmyra,  gods  of,  worshipped  at  Rome, 
166-169. 

Pantano  di  Lauro,  draining  of  the, 
7n. 

Papal  Progress,  213-216. 

Parco  di  Colonna,  16. 

Parini  on  the  Tusculan  district,  258. 

Pascal,  quoted,  94. 

Passes.  See  Roads. 

Passienus  Crispus,  founder  of  the  es- 
tate at  Frascati,  283-285. 

Passionei,  Domenico,  294-298. 

"  Pausilypon,"  villa  of  Mettia  Hedonea, 
45. 

Pelasgians,  in  the  Campagna,  14  ;  and 
oracles,  226,  227. 

Piazza  Poli,  218. 

Piccolomiui,  Enea  Silvio  (Pius  II),  at 
Tivoli,  107. 

Pila,  Monte,  eruptions  of,  3. 

Piranesi,  brothers,  their  excavations 
in  the  villa  of  Hadrian,  148  ;  their 
survey  of  Conche,  157,  158. 

Placidus.  See  Eustachius. 

Plague  at  Rome,  190. 

Plautus,  reference  to  the  fever  in,  5  ; 
on  parasites,  42. 

Pliny  the  Elder,  on  towns  in  the  Pon- 
tine district,  4  ;  mentions  the  fever, 
5, 6  ;  on  springs,  50  ;  on  Saurus  and 
Batrachus,  85  ;  on  tree-worship,  146 ; 
on  Lollia  Paulina,  161. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  on  Laurentum  in 
summer  and  in  winter,  6  ;  on  the 
Maremma,  20  ;  his  career,  302,  303  ; 
his  letters,  303;  his  generosity,  305  ; 
his  villas,  306-308  ;  road  to  his 
Laurentian  villa,  308,  309  ;  on  bath- 
ing, 324,  327. 

Poli,  duchy  of,  foundation,  210. 

Poli,  Piazza,  218. 

Pollio,  Quintus  Voconius,  villa  of,  55, 
56. 


Polybius,  and  a  telegraph  system,  38  ; 

on  charges  at  inns,  39. 
Pompeii,  scenes  painted  in  a  wine  shop 

discovered  at,  39,  40. 
Pontine  district,  inhabited   in  prehis- 
toric times,  4. 
Portrait  busts,  85,  86. 
Porziano,  Castel,  7  n.,  9  n. 
Postal  organization  in  ancient  times, 

34-36. 
Prseneste,  favorite  place  for  villas,  43, 

44  ;  seat  of  oracle,  227,  235,  238- 

246. 
Priscianus  on  the  fever,  6. 
Propertius  and  Cynthia,  88. 
Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia,  welcomed 

at  Rome,  164. 

Quintilii,  estates  of  the,  42. 
Quirinius,  P.  Sulpicius,  91,  93,  94. 

Ratti,  Nicola,  on  pedigree  of  the  Conti, 

207.  : 

Reservoirs,  24. 

Respublica  Decimiensium,  23. 

Roads,  transalpine,  30-34, 

Rocchi,  Father,  on  Bessarion,  281. 

Romansch  district,  names  in,  30. 

Rome,  wholesomeness  of  the  site  of, 
in  early  times,  2-6  ;  sanitation  of, 
towards  the  end  of  the  republic,  6  ; 
the  healthiest  capital  of  Europe,  7, 
8  ;  size  and  population  of,  at  present, 
8  ;  extent  of  the  district  of,  in  an- 
cient times,  16-24  ;  calamities  of 
the  year  590  at,  189-193;  memorials 
of  the  Conti  family  at,  218. 

Rossi,  de,  on  the  Villa  d'Este,  113. 

Rufina,  Villa,  286,  287. 

Rufini,  Alessandro,  Bishop  of  Melfi, 
286,  287. 

Sacrifice,  human,  traces  of,  discovered 
at  Rome,  176  ;  at  Alexandria,  177. 

St.  Moritz,  springs  of,  49. 

St.  Nilus  of  Rossano,  founder  of  the 
Abbey  of  Grottaf errata,  266,  267. 

St.  Silvanus,  62. 


INDEX 


377 


St.  Sylvester,  62,  65. 

Sallust,  gardens  of,  finds  in,  353,  354. 

Saltuarii,  311. 

Samovars  in  ancient  times,  95. 

Sanctis,  Domenico  de,  claimed  to  have 

discovered  the  site  of  Horace's  Sa- 
bine farm,  121,  122. 
Sangallo,  Antonio  da,  the  younger,  at 

Tivoli,  107. 
Sanitation  of  Rome  and  the  Campagna 

6-8. 
Sant'  Angelo,  Colle,  church  on,  217, 

218. 
Santacroce,  Prosper©,  career  of,  114- 

117  ;  and  the  Villa  Gericomio,  118, 

119. 
Santa  Maria  delle  Stelle,  sanctuary, 

228,  229. 
S.  Maria  di  Vulturella,  196. 
Santa  Sigola,  Villa,  204,  205. 
Santo  Stefano,  hills  of,  villas  on,  157, 

158,  160,  161. 
Sarcophagi  in  the  Campagna,  25-29. 
Saturn,  Land  of,  the  Campagna  called, 

6. 
Saurus  and  Batrachus,  84,  85. 
Schirati,  Adriano,  213. 
Secedere,  meaning  of  the  word,  274, 

275. 
Severiana,  Via,  307,  308, 312,  314,  328, 

329. 
Severus,  Alexander,  at  Prseneste,  243. 
Ships,  sunken,  discovered,  337,  338. 
Shrines,  country,  64,  65. 
Siculi,  the,  in  the  Campagna,  13,  14. 
Siegfried,  Johan,  of  Breslau,  207. 
Silius  Italicus  owned  Cicero's  Tusculan 

villa,  265,  266. 
Sixtus  IV,  Pope,  at  Tivoli,  107. 
Sophonisba,  162,  163. 
Sortes,  235,  237,  238. 
Spaccato,  120. 

Spas  in  ancient  times,  48-52,  331-333. 
Springs,  48-52,  331-333. 
Statins,  letter  of,  to  Marcellus,  42. 
Statue  groups,  86-88. 
Straton  of  Lampsacus,  his  theory  of  a 

flood,  12,  13. 


Subiaco,  Nero's  villa  at,  351,  352. 

Sublaqueum.  See  Subiaco. 

Submarine  research,  335-338. 

Suetonius,  on  Augustus  and  his  physi- 
cian, Antonius  Musa,  82  ;  on  Augus- 
tus's habits,  97  ;  his  account  of  Nero, 
346  ;  and  of  Nero's  ship  canal,  348, 
349. 

Sun  of  Palmyra,  spread  of  worship  of, 
at  Rome,  166. 

Sun-god  of  Rome,  166,  170. 

Syphax,  162-164. 

Syria,  gods  of,  worshipped  at  Rome, 
166-179. 

Syrian  chapel,  site  of,  discovered  at 
Rome,  170-179. 

Tacitus  on  Nero's  canal,  349. 

Tarentum,  pool  of,  4. 

Telegraphing  in  ancient  times,  37,  38. 

Tellenge,  4,  5. 

Tennis  in  ancient  times,  98-100. 

Terence,  reference  to  the  fever  in,  5. 

Terminalia,  the,  1. 

Thermal  establishments,  48-52. 

Tiber,  the  part  it  has  played  in  form^ 
ing  the  Campagna,  9-11. 

Tibur,  favorite  place  for  villas,  43,  44  ; 
Horace  on,  74  ;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tuck- 
well  on,  74,  75  ;  Delille  on,  75  ;  villa 
of  Brutus  at,  76  ;  villa  of  Cassius  at, 
76  ;  Horace's  farm  at,  121-126.  See 
Tivoli. 

Tivoli,  climate  of,  104  ;  connection  of 
Marguerite  of  Austria  with,  104, 
105  ;  resort  of  artists  and  literary 
men,  105-107  ;  Villa  d'Este  at,  107- 
114;  Villa  Gericomio  near,  118-120. 
See  Tibur. 

Tobacco  made  known  in  Europe,  117. 

Tombs  of  the  Campagna,  24-29. 

Torre  Caldana,  331,  332. 

Torre  de'  Conti,  218. 

Torrone  di  Micara,  292. 

Towers.  See  Watch  towers. 

Trajan  and  Pliny,  303-305. 

Travelling  in  ancient  times,  inconven- 
iences of,  29-41. 


378 


INDEX 


Tree-worship,  60-65, 146. 

Tres  Tabernse,  39. 

Tuck  well,  the  Rev.  Dr.  W.,  on  Tibur, 
74,  75  ;  on  Horace,  79  ;  on  Horace's 
farm,  125. 

Tullia,  daughter  of  Cicero,  261,  262. 

Tunisia,  sunken  ship  discovered  off  the 
coast  of,  337,  338. 

Tusculan  villa  of  Cicero,  site  of,  247, 
248, 254,  257,  258;  Cicero's  love  for, 
258,  259  ;  small,  but  of  great  value, 
259-261  ;  tile  of,  inscribed  with  Ci- 
cero's name,  264  ;  in  hands  of  Si- 
lius  Italicus,  265. 

Tusculum,  favorite  site  of  villas,  43, 44. 

Tyridates,  King  of  Armenia,  welcomed 
at  Rome,  164,  165. 

Vacca,  Flaminio,  on  the  finding  of  por- 
trait heads,  86  ;  his  discovery  of  a 
Mithrseum,  178  ;  on  finds  in  Caro's 
villa,  291. 

Valerio,  Francesco,  his  account  of 
earthquake  of  1703,  223,  224. 

Varro,  on  the  fever,  6  ;  on  a  banquet 
of  Hortensius,  307. 

Varus,  Quintilius,  91  ;  his  villa,  plan 
of,  taken  by  Ligorio,  111. 

Vaticanus,  Mons,  10  n. 

Veii,  sanctuary  at,  236. 

Verona,  Giocondo  da,  at  Tivoli,  107. 

Via  Collatina,  tomb  discovered  on,  26, 
29. 

Via  Latina  in  ancient  and  in  modern 
times,  20-24. 

Vibius  Varus,  160. 

Vicarello,  well  of  the  Aquae  Apolli- 
nares  at,  50. 

Vicus  Angusculanus,  23. 

Vicus  Augustanus  Laurentium,  306- 
308,  311. 


Villa,  of  Brutus,  76  ;  of  Cassius,  76  ; 
Catena,  211-216  ;  of  Catullus,  91  ; 
of  Cicero,  Tusculan,  247-265  ;  of 
Cynthia,  88-93,  100,  101 ;  d'  Este, 
107,108,  112-114;  Gericomio,  118- 
120  ;  Hadrian's,  85,  111,  127-150  ;  of 
Horace,  76, 121-126;  Lolliorum,  161 ; 
of  LucuUus,  288-294;  Madama, 
104 ;  of  Maecenas,  76,  82,  86  ;  of 
Nero,  at  Antium,  345,  357-362  ;  of 
Nero,  at  Subiaco,  351-352  ;  of  Pliny, 
306-308  ;  of  Quintus  Voconius 
Pollio,  55-56  ;  of  P.  Sulpicius  Qui- 
rinius,  94  ;  Rufina,  287  ;  di  Siface, 
162-164  ;  Santa  Sigola,  204,  205  ; 
of  Varus,  111  ;  of  Zenobia,  150- 
162. 

Villas,  in  the  Campagna,  29,  42  ;  fa- 
vorite sites  for,  43-48. 

Virgil,  on  Lake  of  Como,  45  ;  suffered 
from  angina  pectoris,  91,  92  ;  his 
tenth  eclogue,  dedicated  to  Gallus, 
93. 

Vitruvius  on  temples  placed  on  pub- 
lic roads,  32. 

Volcanoes  near  the  Campagna,  3,  4. 

Volterra,  Daniele  da,  at  Tivoli,  107. 

Vulturella,  history  of,  196,  199  ;  Villa 
Santa  Sigola  on,  204,  205. 

Watch-towers,  65,  66. 

Water-reservoirs,  24. 

Wines,  96. 

Wiseman,  Cardinal,  his  Fabiola,  274, 

301. 
Wurts,  George,  170. 

Zacharias,  historian,  345. 

Zenobia,  her  career,  150-154;  reminis- 
cences of  her  in  the  Tibur  land, 
154  ;  her  villa,  154-162. 


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